This owl occurs in Mexico’s Balsas River depression. It uses dry forest and thorn scrub and hunts small mammals around night and twilight.
The back is dark brown and mottled. The underside is grey to cream with fine dark, wavy streaks; the eyes are reddish brown and the bill is slightly greenish.
It lives in arid and semi-arid areas, including tropical deciduous forest and thorn scrub. From a branch it drops onto small mammals, especially rodents, and may also take insects; it hunts from night into twilight.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.