flammulated owl

noun

flam·​mu·​lat·​ed owl ˈflam-yə-ˌlā-təd- 

plural flammulated owls

: a very small insectivorous owl (Psiloscops flammeolus) of western North America and Central America with dark brown eyes, short ear tufts, and mottled reddish-brown or grayish-brown plumage

Flammulated owls are a smaller species that get their name from what look like racing stripes on their shoulder feathers.

—Mythili Gubbi

Flammulated owls live mainly in … forests from southern British Columbia to the highlands of Mexico and Guatemala.

—Cathy and Gordon Illg

Word History

Etymology

flammulated from New Latin flammulātus "flame-like (of markings)" (from Latin flammula, diminutive of flamma flame entry 1 + -ātus -ate entry 3) + -ed entry 1; after New Latin flammeola, original specific epithet of the bird, from feminine of flammeolus, diminutive of Latin flammeus "flaming, fiery," from flamma "flame" + -eus -eous

Note: The flammulated owl was named Strix flammeola by the German zoologist Hinrich Lichtenstein from specimens in the Zoologisches Museum in Berlin, though this taxon was apparently never published. It was renamed and published as Scops flammeola by the German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup (in "Monograph of the Strigidae," "Read June 8, 1852," Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. 4 [1862], pp. 226-27), who described the bird on the basis of the two Berlin specimens that were available to Lichtenstein.

First Known Use

1872, in the meaning defined above