The striped owl was formally described by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1808 under the binomial name Bubo clamator.

[7] This result was confirmed by a large molecular phylogenetic study of the owls published in 2019.

[8][9] The striped owl is a relatively large species with prominent tufts of elongated feathers on the crown resembling ears.

Its range is not well known, perhaps because it is nocturnal and not easily seen, but it is known from Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay and Venezuela.

It uses a variety of habitats, including riparian woodlands, marshes, savannahs, grassy open areas, and tropical rainforests.