Digiscoped

For almost a decade this strange owl has been coming and hunting insects around the cabins at this east Andean lodge, although no one knows quite what it is. Bird distributions are tied strongly to elevation and specific slopes in the Andes in Ecuador. There are two other Ciccaba owl species in Ecuador, neither of which fit perfectly with this owl. Black-and-white Owl is confined to lower elevations on the western slope of the Andes, and Black-banded Owl only occurs at lower elevations east of the Andes. The bird does not appear exactly like either species, and so may well be a completely new species to science, or it may be that all the "species" involved are all in fact races of a larger species (they certainly all call similarly). Who knows the truth, although the fact remains it is one very smart and intriguing owl!

"Her" name is Panchita apparently!