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Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata), juvenile, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Costa Rica

photograph by Jalil El Harrar

#owl #strigidae #pulsatrix #strigiformes #bird #animals #nature #central america #ornithology

Pulsatrix owl

Which is the best bird?

Spectacled owl

Tawny-bowed owl

Band-bellied owl

Voting ended onJul 18, 2025

#bird poll #owl #pulsatrix #species level #completed

The Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata) is the goth icon of the Central and South American rainforest.

Pulsatrix (anyone need a great goth band name?) have a duality to their appearance as the adults look almost completely different to juveniles.

Young Pulsatrix are almost entirely white with dark “mask” markings. As they mature, they transform into the dark brown adult with creamy facial spectacles, like an operatic phantom undergoing a mythic metamorphosis.

Their whispery hoot is a deep, echoing chant that forest dwellers say sounds like the ghostly cries of a lost monk in the wilderness.

“The native tribes people whisper of such owls as watchers of thresholds, custodians of twilight hours and unspoken knowledge, and one need only meet its gaze to understand why. Its pale rings frame eyes of profound darkness, awakening in the observer an uneasy sense of recognition, as though the bird were less a creature than a consciousness wearing feathers. Motionless upon its branch, it does not hunt nor flee, but observes, silent and unwavering, like a sentry of the unseen world, patiently weighing the soul of whoever dares to look back...”

- Dr. Cornelius Ashbane (The Royal College of Ornithology 1868-1902) whose unfinished manuscript On the Winged Things That Watch Us Back ends abruptly mid sentence, the final page stained with blood and ash.