It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.

[3][4] The tawny-bellied screech owl was described by the American ornithologist John Cassin in 1849 and given the binomial name Ephialtes watsonii.

[4] The nominate subspecies of tawny-bellied screech owl is found north of the Amazon River from eastern Colombia east through Venezuela and the Guianas and south through Ecuador into northeastern Peru and Amazonian Brazil.

[3][4] The tawny-bellied screech owl inhabits the interior of lowland rainforest, mostly old growth and mature secondary forest.

It is nocturnal, forages at lower levels of the forest, and is believed to feed mostly on insects but possibly small vertebrates as well.

The nominate tawny-bellied screech owl's primary song is "a long series of rapid notes, becoming faster and louder, then fading with [a] low trill."

[1] Though it appears to be fairly common and widespread, it is poorly known, and because it requires mature forest, "the major threat to its survival must surely be destruction of its habitat.