Long-whiskered owlet

awww...just because, this was too cute to pass up, and also because i'm bored:

Long-whiskered owlet
A rare owl not much bigger than a human fist was spotted for the first time in the wild in the Peruvian jungle last week. The bird with long, wispy feathers around its eyes was first discovered in 1976. Ornithologists believe only between 250 and 1,000 of the tiny animals, which occupy their own genus "Xenoglaux,' exist on the planet.

related link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenoglaux

It's first time being spotted in the wild?

So in 1976 it was found down the back of a bookshelf?

wiki says...

It has been captured in mist nets on three separate occasions, but had never been observed under "normal" circumstances until early 2007, when rangers and researchers working in the Area de Conservación Privada de Abra Patricia encountered it three times during daylight hours and recorded its calls during night.

Nuts, I'd never thought of the owl as a South American bird. Only a matter of time before he ends up here.

Maybe it was the first time that it was spotted in the Peruvian jungle?

Thanks for clearing that up, don't want to be thinking about spontaneously materialising minature owls, especially not in the seventies.

We have pair of long-eared owls which fly around after dusk, sit in the neighbour's trees
and say "who" every 10 seconds.

I guess they will be nesting soon - when eggs hatch the youngsters issue loud whistles when hungry.

They are always hungry...