From Glenn Bartley
Another highly sought after species that I was lucky enough to see in Argentina was this exceedingly cute Buff-fronted Owl.
The solid color blocks are very cool. Guessing they live in a colorful environment for those patterns to have been selected for.
They live in areas scattered all over South America. They seem very strange, as I can’t imagine there are the same trees all the way from the equator to near Antarctica. In all the photos I look at, they don’t seem well camouflaged. This paper says they can be found in rainforest, dry forest, and even urban environments.
Their cousins are the Saw Whets and the Boreal, which all seem much more color-matched to their environments. This site has almost 50 photos and it doesn’t seem to blend in the best, though artificial light is being used.
Speaking of fancy colors, I did find this photo from this photographer’s exotic owl archives that shows they have light blue eyelids as well. Very unique!
