The bright side of the moon: vocal activity of the Black-banded owl (Strix huhula huhula) in the Yungas Andean forests of Argentina

ABSTRACT

In recent years, passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has become one of the main tools for natural history and behavior studies in nocturnal birds. In this study, we explored the Black-banded owl (Strix huhula huhula) vocal activity in the Yungas Andean forests from northwestern Argentina, using one autonomous recording unit from September 2017 to February 2018. We found higher vocal activity on nights with high lunar illumination (76–100%), mainly concentrated during the early night: between 22:00–23:00 h; approximately 1–2 hours after sunset. This study shows the first acoustic phenology pattern of the black-banded owl during a year-round survey with the use of PAM in the Yungas. We highlight the importance of this type of research to gain knowledge on the vocal behavior of Neotropical nocturnal birds. Additionally we highlight the necessity of incorporating PAM, combined with occupation models, to evaluate the population status of threatened nocturnal bird species.

KEYWORDS:

• Lunar phases
• Nocturnal birds
• passive acoustic monitoring
• Strigidae

Acknowledgments

We thank the reviewers and the editor for the useful comments which greatly improved the manuscript. We thank Carlos Cuñado Strelkov for the photo (http://ecoportaldepiedra.com/) and Agustin Quaglia for his help with the manuscript. Permits for fieldwork were provided by Administración de Parques Nacionales (118/2017 Rnv. 1). MB thanks The Rufford Foundation for the Rufford Small Grant (Project ID-22246-1). The present work was partially funded by the PIO CONICET 094 and PUE INECOA 22920170100027CO grants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).