It is found in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

[1] The Pacific screech owl is a medium-sized member of Megascops and has prominent "ear" tufts and bright yellow eyes.

The nominate subspecies is found from eastern Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico, south along the Pacific slope through Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua into northwestern Costa Rica.

[4] The Pacific screech owl inhabits a wide variety of vegetation communities.

It hunts in clearings and the edges of woodland from a low perch and captures prey by pouncing or sallying.

Its diet is mostly large insects but also includes other arthropods such as scorpions and small vertebrates like birds and flying squirrels.