The Black-banded Owl is a nocturnal forest owl of South America. Its dark body is densely marked with wavy white bars.
Its upperparts are sooty brown to blackish, with narrow whitish wavy bars. The underparts have broader black-and-white bars; the tail has four to five narrow whitish bars and a white terminal band. Its rounded head has no ear-tufts.
It is nocturnal, roosts in a concealed place in a tree by day, and becomes active at dusk. It eats mainly insects, as well as small mammals and other small vertebrates.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.