Puerto Rican owl

The Puerto Rican owl (Gymnasio nudipes) or múcaro común (Spanish via Taino), formerly known as the Puerto Rican screech owl, is a mid-sized "typical owl" in subfamily Striginae. It is endemic to the archipelago of Puerto Rico though it formerly also inhabited the Virgin Islands.

The Puerto Rican owl is 20 to 25 cm (7.9 to 9.8 in) long with a wing length of 154 to 171 mm (6.1 to 6.7 in). It weighs 100 to 170 g (3.5 to 6.0 oz), with females being slightly heavier than males. It has a rounded head with no "ear" tufts. It has three color morphs; the brown one predominates, the rufous one is fairly common, and the gray one is rare. The brown morph has brown upperparts with irregular paler brown bars and vermiculation. The tail is also brown with paler vermiculation. The wing coverts have some whitish spots. Its facial discs have narrow light and dark brown bars; the supercilium and lores are white. The underparts are mostly white with much brown or dusky streaking, barring, and vermiculation. The belly and undertail coverts are usually plain white. The legs are not feathered, which is unusual in owls, and led to another former common name, the Puerto Rican bare-legged owl. The eye is brown, the bill greenish yellow, and the legs and feet pale brown to grayish yellow. The rufous morph replaces the brown with pale reddish brown or ochre buff. Putative subspecies G. n. newtoni has somewhat paler upperparts and less heavily streaked underparts than the nominate.