Reproducing conspecific vocalization has been widely used to detect owls in the field due to the nocturnal habits and cryptic nature of most of them. Surveying and monitoring owl populations using playback and other methods are important given the key roles these birds play in the environment and the ecosystem services they provide, especially Neotropical owls that are still poorly understood. We described Tropical Screech-Owls (Megascops choliba) response to playback and examined playback- and environmental-related variables affecting it, at one of the last lowland Atlantic forest remnants, in southeastern Brazil. Our playback protocol consisted of three repetitions of 2-min broadcasting of one recording of the species’ A-song, interspersed by 5-min silent listening periods. We used nine recordings randomly selected by sampling point to avoid pseudoreplication. The most common response (77%, N = 85) was an undescribed variation of the A-song, followed by other two voices that are possibly undescribed. The response rate to playback was 83.4% (N = 102 samples). Response rate was negatively affected by wind speed (especially wind bursts), and positively affected by greater cloud cover and lower ambient light. Recordings used for playback were more influential than any environmental variable. Recordings with fewer phrases, uneven and longer intervals between phrases, and higher-pitched songs elicited more responses. These characteristics are usually associated with lower quality individuals. We argue that playback protocols, whatever their goals, should be carefully designed and tested to improve their efficiency.

由于它们的夜行习性和大多数人的隐秘性，繁殖同种发声已被广泛用于野外探测猫头鹰。考虑到这些鸟类在环境和它们提供的生态系统服务中所起的关键作用，尤其是对尚不了解的新热带猫头鹰，使用回放和其他方法调查和监测猫头鹰种群非常重要。我们描述了热带鱼鹰猫头鹰（Megascops choliba）对回放的反应，并检查了巴西东南部最后一个低地大西洋森林遗迹之一对回放造成的影响以及与环境有关的变量。我们的播放协议包括两次重复，每次播种2分钟，一次录制该物种的A-歌曲，并穿插5分钟的静默聆听时段。我们使用了由采样点随机选择的九个记录，以避免伪复制。最常见的响应（77％，N = 85）是A歌曲的一个未描述的变体，其次是其他两个可能未描述的声音。播放回应率为83.4％（N= 102个样本）。响应速度受风速（尤其是阵风）的负面影响，而受更大的云层覆盖和较低的环境光的正面影响。用于回放的记录比任何环境变量都具有更大的影响力。短语较少，短语间隔不均匀且间隔较长，音调较高的歌曲会引起更多反应。这些特征通常与素质较低的个人有关。我们认为，无论回放协议的目标是什么，都应仔细设计和测试以提高其效率。