Little Dudes: Xenoglaux loweryi -- Long Whiskered Owlet

I came across Xenoglaux loweryi last night in my Ornithology text, and had to share.

They live in remote mountainous regions of the Andes, and the extant world population is estimated at round 250 birds.

In March of '07, a team in Peru spotted one for the first time in the wild, according to this National Geographic article. On only three occasions have they ever been caught in mist nets.

These owlets are considered one of the Holy Grails of birding -- there are probably "listers" (birders who list every bird they've spotted, but specifically the subset of birders who are completely obsessive about this) drooling on the computer screen as you read this. It doesn't get much rarer and exotic than this little dude.

[photo credit in embedded National Geographic article]

Enjoy the little feathered anomaly,

Bp