Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata), juvenile, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Costa Rica
photograph by Jalil El Harrar

seen from Türkiye

seen from United States
seen from United Arab Emirates

seen from Maldives
seen from Russia

seen from United States

seen from Finland
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from Finland
seen from Finland
seen from China

seen from United Kingdom

seen from Australia

seen from Italy

seen from United Kingdom
seen from Sri Lanka

seen from Sri Lanka
seen from Malaysia
Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata), juvenile, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Costa Rica
photograph by Jalil El Harrar
Pulsatrix owl
Which is the best bird?
Spectacled owl
Tawny-bowed owl
Band-bellied owl
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.
Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata) - (c) SaritaWolf - please do not repost
A pair of spectacled owls (Pulsatrix perspicillata) sit in a tree in Costa Rica
by Daniel Parent
Spectacled Owl
Pulsatrix perspicillata by HUGO VIANA.
Spectacled Owl (Pulsatrix perspicillata), family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, Costa Rica
photograph by Greivin Araya