Bare-shanked Screech-Owl

How to find it

Plan a night outing, since this is how most visitors meet it. In the Savegre Valley, guides walk the roadside at night and wait for the owl to call, then track the sound and spotlight the bird. Outings can be on foot or by vehicle, and a night trip up the valley by coach is also a way to try for it, along with the Dusky Nightjar. At dusk on the Cerro de la Muerte stretch, one group focused on the calls as darkness fell. One tour group needed a lot of recorded playback before the owl showed, and the writer felt that hearing it would have been enough, so patient listening is the kinder approach. Keep an ear out by day too, since it sometimes calls then.

How to recognise it

This is a large screech-owl with a big head and small ear tufts. Look for these marks:

Yellow eyes.

A grey bill.

Bare lower legs and toes, with no feathers and a pinkish colour, which gives the bird its name.

With a good view, the tawny face has no clear dark rim, and the underparts are spotted whitish. That face is the best clue when a screech-owl sits briefly in a spotlight. The Bare-shanked is also larger than other screech-owls in its range, which usually live lower down the mountains.

What it sounds like

Recording: Dan MacNeal, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

It is strictly nocturnal, though at dusk it may sometimes be seen hunting along forest edges or in clearings. By day it roosts in trees with dense leaves or a thick cover of epiphytes, and family groups may stay close together.

It sometimes calls in daytime. One tour saw a calling bird perched in the open in broad daylight at the Santa Elena Reserve in Monteverde. In the Savegre Valley, a softly hooting bird sat at eye level for over 20 minutes late in the afternoon and ignored the small birds mobbing it.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it lives in the cloud forests of the Talamanca and Central Volcanic ranges, usually above 1,500 meters. It has also been recorded in the Talamanca páramos. One photographed bird was at about 1300 m in Monteverde.

Across its whole range it is usually found between about 900 and 3300 m and depends strongly on dense mountain forest. It is most often found in mid-elevation cloud forest and humid forest.

Similar birds

The Middle American (Vermiculated) Screech-Owl, called Lechucita Vermiculada in Costa Rica, looks similar and sometimes lives at the same elevation. The Bare-shanked is larger, and other screech-owls in its range usually live lower. A good look at the tawny face with no clear dark rim, and the whitish-spotted underparts, settles it.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Rican lists give the local names Estucurú and Sorococa beside the official Spanish name Lechucita Serranera, and both are given as alternatives for this owl. Other Spanish names for the species are Autillo Serrano and Autillo Manchado, but Lechucita Serranera is the one used in Costa Rica.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident regional endemic (R-END), and the IUCN rates it Least Concern.