Chestnut-fronted Macaw vs Choco Screech Owl

Ara severus compared with Megascops centralis

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Chestnut-fronted Macaw	Choco Screech Owl
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (Chordates)	Chordata (Chordates)
Class same	Aves (Birds)	Aves (Birds)
Order	Psittaciformes (Parrots)	Strigiformes (Owls)
Family	Psittacidae (True Parrots)	Strigidae (True Owls)
Genus	Ara (Macaws)	Megascops
Species	Ara severus	Megascops centralis

Evolutionary Relationship

Chestnut-fronted Macaw and Choco Screech Owl share a common ancestor at the Class level: Aves. (Birds)

Conservation Status

Chestnut-fronted Macaw

LC — Least Concern

Choco Screech Owl

LC — Least Concern

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Chestnut-fronted Macaw	Choco Screech Owl
Diet	—	—
Average Lifespan	—	—
Average Length	—	—
Average Weight	—	—

Habitat & Geographic Range

Chestnut-fronted Macaw

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Widely distributed across Europe (Belgium, Norway), North America (United States), and South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela).

Choco Screech Owl

Habitat

Typically found in various aerial, terrestrial, and aquatic environments.

Range

Distributed across Colombia and Norway.

Chestnut-fronted Macaw

A medium-sized macaw of Central and South American tropical forests from southern Mexico to Bolivia and Brazil, chestnut-fronted macaws have predominantly green plumage with a chestnut forehead, red shoulder patches, and blue flight feathers. The smallest of the true macaws, they inhabit forest edges, savannas, and secondary woodland and often raid crops, making them locally unpopular with farmers. They are popular aviary birds, but wild populations face pressure from trapping and deforestation.

Choco Screech Owl

The Choco Screech-Owl (Megascops centralis) is a small, cryptically patterned owl in the family Strigidae, found in the humid lowland and foothill forests of the Chocó region of northwestern Colombia and extending into adjacent areas of Central America. Screech-owls of the genus Megascops are characterised by their small to medium size, prominent ear tufts, complex camouflage plumage imitating tree bark, and vocalisations consisting of mellow trilling or whinnying calls quite different from the piercing screech suggested by their common name. The Choco Screech-Owl inhabits the forest interior and edge from sea level to around 1,500 metres elevation, where it hunts nocturnally for large insects, small lizards, frogs, and occasionally small birds. During the day it roosts upright against a tree trunk or in dense foliage, where its mottled grey, brown, and black plumage renders it nearly invisible. Nesting occurs in natural tree cavities. The IUCN classifies this species as Least Concern, with a sufficient range across the Colombian Chocó and Central America. However, the ongoing loss of lowland tropical forest in this region — one of the wettest on Earth — remains a background threat to this and the many other Chocó endemics that depend on intact forest.

Shared Countries

Both species can be found in 2 countries:

🇨🇴 Colombia 🇳🇴 Norway