Puerto Rican Screech-Owls Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons

Summary: Puerto Rican screech-owls are possible Earth Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood icons since the April breeders appear only in Puerto Rico.

The Puerto Rican screech-owl (Megascops nudipes) is known in Puerto Rico as múcaro (Spanish via Taíno: múcaro or múkaro), múcaro común or múcarito; photo by Alfredo Irizarry: Aves y Estampas de Puerto Rico: Por Alfredo Irizarry, via Facebook Dec. 31, 2018

April 2019 acts as Earth Month 2019 and announces the annual breeding season of Puerto Rican screech-owls, perhaps imminent Puerto Rico Five-One icons of the lowland and upland Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Earth Month 2019 broaches the third planet bound to the Sun as the Blue Marble of better, bluer skies and waters and greater, greener, ground cover. It considers the clean cityscapes and countrysides that correlate with cultivated and wild plants and domesticated and wild animals completing their chemical- and cruelty-free life cycles. It disavows the air, light, noise, soil and water pollution that disrupts the annual, biennial or perennial life cycles of day- and night-active animals and plants.

Environmental effects efficacious for endemic Puerto Rican screech-owls potentially ensue from Earth Month 2019 and the Puerto Rico Five-One statehood bill entered into the 116th Congress.

April through June fit into the four- to seven-year life cycles of physically and sexually mature female and male Puerto Rican screech-owls as annual breeding months.

Physically and sexually mature female Puerto Rican screech-owls gestate one one- to three-egg seasonal clutch in abandoned woodpecker holes, nest boxes, rotted snags and tree cavities. They have their elliptical to spherical, semi-glossy, white, 1.29- by 1.10-inch (33- by 28-millimeter) eggs 5 to 30 feet (1.52 to 9.14 meters) above tree bases. They incubate 21 to 30 days seasonal clutches whose altricial (helpless, from Latin altrix, "nourisher"), blind, deaf, immobile hatchlings inhabit their birthplaces 28 to 32 days.

Puerto Rican screech-owl fathers-to-be journey back and forth with crayfish, insect and worm prey for their seasonal mates and for newborn to 14-day-old Puerto Rican screech-owls.

Puerto Rican screech-owls keep thick, white down for body and head warmth as newborn to 1-day-olds, until they know how to cast pellets and kill prey.

Puerto Rican screech-owls look olive- and umber-feathered above and white-feathered below as 10- to 21-day-olds with a second, successor body and head covering of downy plumage. They manage flight as 28-day-olds and nearby homes as 30- to 32-day-olds even though they meet daily with their parents for another eight to 10 weeks. Puerto Rican screech-owls, named Megascops nudipes (from Greek μέγας σκοπός, "great watcher" and Latin nudus pēs, "naked foot"), need downless, featherless clawed toes, feet and legs.

Puerto Rican screech-owls, observed by François Daudin (Aug. 29, 1776-Nov. 30, 1803), operate bare-legged, unlike eastern (Megascops asio), western (Megascops kennicottii) and whiskered (Megascops trichopsis) screech-owls.

Physically and sexually mature Puerto Rican screech-owls perform steady, straight, swift flights under tree canopies through 2,952.76-foot (900-meter) altitudes above sea level during Earth Month 2019.

Mature 3.63- to 5.96-ounce (102.9- to 169-gram) weights queue up 7.87- to 9.84-inch (20- to 25-centimeter) head-body lengths and 60.63- to 67.32-inch (154- to 171-centimeter) wingspans. They reveal rounded heads with brown eyes and without ear tufts; red-brown upper-parts; rounded wings; gray-barred under-wings; white-spotted inner-wings; streaked underparts; black legs; and short tails. Crayfish-, fish-, insect-, lizard-, snake-, tadpole, worm-preying adults seem grayer in drier forests, gardens, groves, orchards, parks, swamps and woodlands and sound three- to five-second trills.

Cackling, cooing, trilling Puerto Rican screech-owls, mucaritos del Bosque Nacional El Yunque (Anvil National Forest's owlets), perhaps toast Earth Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One statehood.

photo of Puerto Rican screech-owl (Megascops nudipes) by Javier Hernandez Ramos: Aves de Puerto Rico @avesdepuertoricoFelPe, via Facebook April 23, 2012

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

The Puerto Rican screech-owl (Megascops nudipes) is known in Puerto Rico as múcaro (Spanish via Taíno: múcaro or múkaro), múcaro común or múcarito; photo by Alfredo Irizarry: Aves y Estampas de Puerto Rico: Por Alfredo Irizarry, via Facebook Dec. 31, 2018, @ https://www.facebook.com/964307343721798/photos/a.964321333720399/1159641490855048/

photo of Puerto Rican screech-owl (Megascops nudipes) by Javier Hernandez Ramos: Aves de Puerto Rico @avesdepuertoricoFelPe, via Facebook April 23, 2012, @ https://www.facebook.com/avesdepuertoricoFelPe/photos/a.10153827571810190/10153814785170190/

For further information:

Aves de Puerto Rico @avesdepuertoricoFelPe. 23 April 2012. "Mucarito, Puerto Rican Sreech Owl. Nombre científico, scientific name, Megascops nudipes. Endémica de Puerto Rico, endemic to Puerto Rico." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/avesdepuertoricoFelPe/photos/a.10153827571810190/10153814785170190/

Aves y Estampas de Puerto Rico: Por Alfredo Irizarry. 31 December 2018. "Múcaro Común, Puerto Rican Screech-Owl. Megascops nudipes." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/964307343721798/photos/a.964321333720399/1159641490855048/

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Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22688891/93210689

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Available @ https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/prsowl/overview

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Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/16227714

Lewis, Deane. 15 October 2015. "Puerto Rican Screech Owl - Megascops nudipes." The Owl Pages > Owl Species > Genus: Megascops.
Available @ https://www.owlpages.com/owls/species.php?s=1090

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 April 2019. "Earth Month, Puerto Rican Green Mango Hummingbirds and Sea Hibiscus." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/earth-month-puerto-rican-green-mango.html

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