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Palawan scops owl

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Species of owl

Palawan scops owl
Conservation status

Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1)
CITES Appendix II (CITES)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Otus
Species: O. fuliginosus
Binomial name
Otus fuliginosus
(Sharpe, 1888)

The Palawan scops owl (Otus fuliginosus) is an owl endemic to the Philippines only being found on the island of Palawan. It is found on tropical moist lowland forest. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Description and taxonomy

EBird describes the bird as "A fairly small owl of lowland forest. Dark brown above with a white bar behind the shoulder, and paler and warmer brown below with black marks. Note the wide, shallow V-shape stretching from between the eyes out to the ends of the prominent ear tufts, and the dark facial shield incompletely bordered with white below. Eyes are deep orange. Similar to Mantanani Scops-Owl, which only occurs on small offshore islands off Palawan, but differs in eye color. Voice is a low rasping croak, 'gruk grrrrrrrrr'."

It was once believed to be part of a species group with the Indian scops owl and the Collared scops owl but differs greatly in vocalizations.

Ecology and behavior

Not much is known about this owl but they are presumed to have similar habits to other closely related scops owls. Their diet is presumed to be insects, small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.

They are presumed to live alone or in monogamous pairs and nests in tree hollows. Birds in breeding condition with enlarged gonads collected in April. Type specimen was a juvenile taken in July.

Habitat and conservation status

Its habitat is in tropical moist lowland primary and secondary forest and even mixed cultivated areas – as long as there are still trees.

IUCN has assessed this bird as near threatened with the population being estimated at 10,000 to 19,999 mature individuals remaining. This species' main threat is habitat loss with wholesale clearance of forest habitats as a result of legal and illegal logging, mining and conversion into farmlands through slash-and-burn or other methods.

References

  1. BirdLife International (2016). "Otus fuliginosus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016: e.T22688718A93207140. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22688718A93207140.en. Retrieved 11 November 2021.
  2. "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. "Palawan Scops Owl". Ebird.
  4. ^ Holt, Denver W.; Berkley, Regan; Deppe, Caroline; Enríquez, Paula L.; Petersen, Julie L.; Rangel Salazar, José Luis; Segars, Kelley P.; Wood, Kristin L.; Marks, Jeffrey S. (2020). "Palawan Scops-Owl (Otus fuliginosus), version 1.0". Birds of the World. doi:10.2173/bow.pasowl2.01species_shared.bow.project_name. ISSN 2771-3105.
  5. Allen, Desmond (2020). Birds of the Philippines. Barcelona: Lynx and Birdlife International Guides. pp. 178–179.
Taxon identifiers
Otus fuliginosus
Scops fuliginosa


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