Screech owl

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Screech owl Temporal range: Miocene to present
Eastern screech owl, Megascops asio Rufous morph
Gray morph
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Strigiformes
Family:	Strigidae
Genus:	Megascops Kaup, 1848
Type species
Strix acio Linnaeus, 1758
Species
Some 22, see text
Synonyms
Macabra Carlo Bonaparte, 1854

Screech owls are typical owls (Strigidae) belonging to the genus Megascops with 22 living species. For most of the 20th century, this genus was merged with the Old World scops owls in Otus, but nowadays it is again considered separately based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological, and DNA sequence data.

Screech owls are restricted to the Americas. Some species formerly placed with them are nowadays considered more distinct (see below for details).