Pernambuco Pygmy-owl
Glaucidium mooreorum
Status: Critically Endangered. They have a very small range in Brazil, and at last count, an extremely small population. Forestland in most of their range has been decimated by illegal logging and deforestation.
In the Amazon rainforests of Brazil, there is folklore of Matinta Perera. She is a supernatural old woman, who turns into an ominous bird (often said to be either an owl or a cuckoo bird) when dusk falls. Like an apparition, she flits about, frightening those who are about in the night. She perches upon rooftops, whistling long into the moonlit hours, and disturbing the sleep of those who live within. If one is abroad and hears the sound of her whistling, best to turn their steps away quickly, lest her evil attention be drawn.
References:
Elswit, S. (2015). The Latin American Story Finder: A Guide to 470 Tales from Mexico, Central America and South America, Listing Subjects and Sources. United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
Ecocriticism and Indigenous Studies: Conversations from Earth to Cosmos. (2016). United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis.
Cravalho, M. A. (1993). An Invisible Universe of Evil: Supernatural Malevolence and Personal Experience Among Amazon Peasants. (n.p.): University of California, San Diego, Department of Anthropology.