• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Megascops guatemalae and M. vermiculatus (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as M. guatemalae following AOU (2003). Prior to that, M. guatemalae, plus M. atricapilla and M. hoyi (del Hoyo and Collar 2014), had been placed in the genus Otus and were treated as two species; O. atricapillus (including guatemalae and hoyi) and O. vermiculatus, following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
del Hoyo, J.; Collar, N. J.; Christie, D. A.; Elliott, A.; Fishpool, L. D. C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2016	Least Concern
2014	Least Concern
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	high
Land-mass type		Average mass	113 g

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	2,220,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	7 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size is unknown given recent taxonomic splits.

Trend justification: The population is suspected to be in decline owing to ongoing habitat destruction and fragmentation.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Belize	extant	native	yes
Guatemala	extant	native	yes
Honduras	extant	native	yes
Mexico	extant	native	yes
Nicaragua	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 1500 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Guatemalan Screech-owl Megascops guatemalae. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/guatemalan-screech-owl-megascops-guatemalae on 21/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 21/12/2024.