Striped Owl, photo by Randall Jimenez Borbón, aka Ciccio

The Striped Owl is a favorite — just look at that photo! Considered “local” and “uncommon” in the Coto Brus-Terraba region, they can be found perched on roadside utility wires at night. Let’s say, for example, you are driving home to San Vito after a weekend at Manuel Antonio National Park. You see an upright figure on a wire ahead and it’s getting dark so you slow down to see what this might be: a Striped Owl! What a prize!

The ear tufts are reminiscent of Long-eared and Short-eared Owls of North America but hunting techniques differ in that the northern birds tend to fly over large, open areas like salt marshes whereas ‘Stripeys’ favor roadside edges of forest or rice or palm plantations, often near lights, where they can dive for prey that includes small mammals, large insects, amphibians and occasionally small birds. 

We wanted to know more about “owl pellets”, so fascinating to nature centers around the world, so we decided to ask ‘Stripey’: why do you all cough up those (potentially) gross detritus-y balls of ??? and this is the answer (click here and click play). The bird didn’t really answer the question but we were happy to hear a recording from so close to home.

This Striped Owl comes to us from the extensive nature photography collection of Randall Jimenez, a Detectives de Aves teacher, who works at Finca Cántaros as the Coordinador de Alcance Comunitario, i.e., the public face of the new Asociación Ambiental Finca Cántaros.

Randall can be found on Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms and, should you wish to visit Cántaros, please contact him.