• Summary

This taxon is Not Recognised as a species by BirdLife International.

Taxonomic note
On the basis that its calls are indistinguishable from those of Megascops ingens and that there is little apparent genetic differentiation between the concepts the subspecies comprising this form are now considered best treated as part of a wider concept of M. ingens. There is some uncertainty with this treatment, as pointed out by Fitzpatrick and O'Neill (1986), ‘Not only are the tarsi and feet of colombianus unusually long and robust for an Otus, but the tarsi are bare over much of their length and only sparsely feathered proximally... This character is not present in any other South American Otus except clarkii’. While further work is needed to establish the full relationships within this group it is decided that this concept will be dropped at the earliest opportunity, which will be the first update to the Red List in 2024.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Megascops colombianus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/megascops-colombianus on 22/11/2024.
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 22/11/2024.