Megascops roraimae
Silhouette: Jason Dilworth · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The foothill screech owl (Megascops roraimae) is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela. The foothill screech owl's taxonomy has undergone numerous changes. It has variously been treated as embedded in or a subspecies of the original Otus guatemalae and then as a subspecies of O. vermiculatus when that was split from O. guatemalae. In the early 2000s all of the New World members of Otus were assigned to Megascops. As of 2019, the International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the North and South American Classification Committees of the American Ornithological Society (AOS), and the Clements taxonomy treat it as a separate species, Megascops roraimae.
However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treats it as being embedded within M. vermiculatus vermiculatus, the nominate subspecies of vermiculated screech owl. ��2... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname | |
| 2 | Henri Pittier National Park | 🇻🇪 Venezuela |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Foothill Screech-Owl sighting in Henri Pittier National Park on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 267th most-seen of the 358 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Foothill Screech-Owl in Henri Pittier National Park on a given day, against under 5% in January–February and April–November, the lowest months.
Between 6 and 9 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Foothill Screech-Owl sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Foothill Screech-Owl sightings, Henri Pittier National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Brownsberg Nature Park (Suriname, about 20%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Foothill Screech-Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Henri Pittier National Park (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
