A medium to rather large owl without ear hair. Women weigh on average about 200 grams more than men. The upper part is uniformly dark brown or slightly dark brown. Remiges and rectrices were blocked by a paler grayish brown. There are broad dark brown chest bands, and the feathers under the chest band are uniformly light yellow to dark yellow. The face plate is dark brown, the chin is black, and the white throat forms a half collar; White eyebrows, the corners of the eyes, and cheekbones stripes form "glasses" around the bright orange-yellow eyes. The banknote and brain are yellow horns, and the tip of the banknote is green. The cream to dark yellow tarsal line and toes are almost entirely feathered, the feathers of the toes are white or pale grey, and the claws are dark. Juvenile fluffy chickens are white. The median layer is mainly hairy white with a gray-brown cover on the wings, and an almost heart-shaped black face that contrasts strongly with the white body; The wings and tail are brown and have a paler fence. It may take up to five years to acquire full adult feathers, but reproduction can begin before that.
Given a sequence of six accelerations, short, dry, rattling sounds, poof... Lack of resonance, lasting between seven and nine seconds, repeated several times after different intervals. In Colombia, the sound resembles the tapping of a large spotted woodpecker. Interestingly, in Brazil, these owls are known locally as "knocking owls". Food and hunting feed mainly on small mammals and birds, but also on crabs, insects and spiders. Hunt on perches.
The habitat prefers mature tropical and subtropical forests, but also lives near secondary growing woodlands and plantations and groves. Mainly in the lowlands, but occasionally up to 1700 meters. It is found in southern Mexico and from northern Argentina. It is fairly common in the local area but is affected by deforestation. The geographic variant lists five subspecies: nominated perspicillata from northern Colombia, Venezuela and southern Guyana to Peru and Brazil; Surata is produced in southern Mexico to Costa Rica and western Panama, with a darker color, a uniformly black head and back, and a fine barrier underneath; Trini-Tatis from Trinidad have pale upper body and chest collar, slightly pale pale pale yellow breasts and abdomen; The island's race is thought to have gone extinct, but has been redesigned and recorded. All are Chapmani, from Costa Rica to Ecuador, and Bolivia, from Bolivia to northern Argentina, with poor markings.
Short-browed owls of similar species with only slightly the same domain have short, pale cream-colored eyebrows with yellow-brown to warm-brown eyes, faintly creamy or dark yellow markings on the lower part of the face, a brown chest band in the middle, vaguely broken, and only sparse feathered toes at the bottom. The very edged overlapping yellow-brown eyebrow owl has dark maroon eyes and ochre-colored eyebrows and abdomen. Similarly sized bellied owls, due to their life in the 700-1600 m mountain forests of the North Andes, are largely heterogeneous, with black eyes and white eyebrows, a white lower part with a reddish-brown to dark brown barrier, and a brown chestband broken by a dark yellow or white barrier.