Return of Bird of the Week: Austral Pygmy-Owl

WC found it completely by accident. Birding with Marcelo de Cruz in Tierra del Fuego National Park, Marcelo was imitating a pygmy-owl call, a birding technique to make songbirds move where they can be seen. To our surprise, he got an answer. After considerable searching in the soggy thickets of Tierra del Fuego, we found it. You’ll have to look closely. The bird is pretty cryptic, which is important to a daytime ambush hunter. The species is tiny, a male like this is just a bit over six inches long and weighs about two ounces. This is the southern limit of…