BRN 9-3 - Flipbook - Page 11
Updates and Tidbits
Mountain Pygmy Owl
As an update to the article in the January 2026 issue of this
journal, about the species which visited a bird bath during
2025, we add this observation.
A Mountain Pygmy Owl, Glaucidium gnoma, visited a bird
bath in Hillsboro on January 4 of this year, bringing the
Òyard listÓ for that yard to 178. It was also seen in the yard
the day before. This species is diurnal.
Various sources (The American Ornithological Society [AOS]
and the Cornell Lab [All About Birds], for instance) do not
recognize the Mountain Pygmy Owl as a full species.
Instead, they consider this population to be a subspecies of
the Northern Pygmy Owl, along with various other Pygmy
Owls in Mexico and Central America.
At this level, the taxonomic determination of this population
is pretty straightforward. It is in dispute. Lumpers consider
it part of the Northern Pygmy Owl complex, splitters
consider it a separate species (they also consider other
populations in Mexico and Central America to be full species
[e.g., the Guatemalan Pygmy Owl, Glaucidium cobanense]).
The taxonomic designation of the population found here is
disputed. The IOU (International OrnithologistsÕ Union)
considers this population a full species (see range map at the
top of the next column by Simon Pierre Barrette via
Wikipedia, shown here under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license). In this
treatment, the population found here is the Mountain Pygmy
Owl, Glaucidium gnoma. The Northern Pygmy Owl,
Glaucidium californicum, range is shown in the second map
from the top on the right under the same license, according
to the IOU.
But let us not leave well enough alone. The IOU and AOS
use some of the same English common and Latin binomials
to describe the various (grouped or split) species
populations. It can be very confusing.
For our part, we throw our weight (something less than that
of a piece of down) behind the IOU, based on our personal
observations of the various species.
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