*What Do We Know about the Diet of Ecuadorian Owls? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108594*

light on owls' capture methods or activity schedules. To date, most publications about Ecuadorian owls pertain to *T. furcata*, mirroring the situation of this species in other Neotropical countries [9]. More information on pellets comes from dry areas such as the southwestern tropics and the Andean valleys since pellets are better preserved in dry than in humid environments like the Amazonian rainforests or cloud forests along Andean slopes. Dietary information of humid forest owls reported for Ecuador to date corresponds to less than three pellets [29, 35].

An owl species' diet is often inferred from its bill form and/or knowledge about its congeners. Yet, diets may vary due to factors, such as seasonality, sex, ontogeny, availability of prey, or geography, even in nearby or similar geographical areas, individuals could differ in diet [60]. Therefore, it is important to continue studying and publishing information even about common species like *T. furcata* and *A. cunicularia* (**Figure 4**). On the other hand, since *Megascops roboratus* and *G. nubicola* are regional endemics (i.e., their global distribution ranges are mainly confined to Ecuador [34]), studying them in Ecuador is promising as to obtain natural history information.

Of 29 species of owls present in Ecuador, there are no diet data in the country for two species (*Glaucidium griseiceps* and *Aegolius harrisii*). If we narrow this analysis to the 39 subspecies present, four additional taxa are added to this figure: *Megascops roboratus roboratus, Lophostrix cristata cristata, Strix virgata* cf*. superciliaris*, and *Athene cunicularia carrikeri*. There are only 11 museum specimens with information about stomach contents deposited in Ecuadorian bird collections, all from MECN, that were not studied earlier [23]. Most information in specimen labels, though, is basic and unquantified. Likewise, there are only eight new papers [14, 18, 28, 30, 44, 46, 47, 49] reporting owl species diets since the only state-of-the-art revision by Freile et al. [34].
