Adults of the gray-brown morph have upperparts of that color with a "collar" and heavy spotting of whitish gray.

The underparts are pale with darker markings that give an ocellated appearance and feathing extends almost to the toes.

It inhabits humid temperate montane forest of several types; examples include pine-oak, oak, and cloudforest.

It feeds almost exclusively on arthropods, especially beetles, with crickets, moths, roaches, spiders, and scorpions also taken.

It hunts in the understory or forest edge, waiting on a perch and pouncing on prey on the ground.

The only nest ever found was in a natural tree cavity where a reddish female was brooding a gray chick.

The bearded screech owl's territorial song is "a quiet and low-pitched, cricket-like trill of 3-5 [seconds] in duration, rising and dropping at the end."

[6] Mexican officials have listed it as endangered in that country due to extensive deforestation.