Oriental Scops-Owl (Otus sunia)

Other Names (World)
Oriental Scops-Owl, Asian Scops-owl, Indian Scops-owl(!), Little Scops-owl, Eastern Scops-owl, East Asian Screech-owl, Oriental Scops Owl

Family
Strigidae (Typical Owls)

Size
18 - 21 cm

First Described (Guide)
(Hodgson, 1836)

Habitat
Parks, large gardens, woodland edges and montane forest, from deciduous and mixed in the north of its range to evergreen broadleaf in the south. Coniferous taiga. From sea-level - 1,500 m.

Range (Guide)

Russia (Asian) (B), USA.

Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.

Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).

Status LC
For more information see BirdLife International Species Factsheet.

Habits
Crepuscular, nocturnal.

Voice
A soft, monotonous, three-note 'bu-po-so' or 'buk-kyok-koo', often repeated, at night. Occasionally calls during the day, especially during spring migration.

Xeno-Canto Sound Files (more (113)...)

Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia) [XC493779]
by Wonseok Jang from Sundarbans, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India (call)

Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia) [XC897668]
by id from Tianlin Community, Shanghai, China (song, nocturnal song)

Subspecies
Otus scops (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) has been split into African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis) following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993), Oriental Scops-Owl (Otus sunia) following AOU (1998), Nicobar Scops-Owl (Otus alius) following Rassmussen (1998) and Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops) (with species limits accordingly revised).

Probably forms superspecies with Pallid Scops-Owl (Otus brucei), African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis), Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops) and Flammulated Owl (Psiloscops flammeolus). Sometimes treated as conspecific with Eurasian Scops-Owl (Otus scops), and has been considered conspecific both with African Scops-Owl (Otus senegalensis) and with Pallid Scops-Owl (Otus brucei), or to include Mindanao Highland Scops-Owl (Otus mirus), Mindoro Scops-Owl (Otus mindorensis), Mantanani Scops-Owl (Otus mantananensis), Ryukyu Scops-Owl (Otus elegans), Simeulue Scops-Owl (Otus umbra) and Enggano Scops-Owl (Otus enganensis) as subspecies. All now shown to be specifically distinct on basis mainly of vocalizations.

Proposed subspecies nicobaricus and distans (Thailand) synonymous with modestus, although nicobaricus may prove to be a valid taxon. According to some, even modestus itself is possibly inseparable from malayanus. Original specimen of Nicobar Scops-Owl (Otus alius) initially assigned to subspecies nicobaricus (= modestus) of Oriental Scops-Owl (Otus sunia).

The following 9 subspecies are recognised:

sunia (Hodgson, 1836) - Northern Pakistan east to Bangladesh, and northern India.
rufipennis (Sharpe, 1875) - Southern India.
leggei Ticehurst, 1923 - Sri Lanka.
modestus (Walden, 1874) - Assam (south to Brahmaputra R), Myanmar, northern and western Thailand, Indochina. Also Andamans and central Nicobars (Camorta).
malayanus (Hay, 1845) - Southern China (Yunnan east to Guangdong).
stictonotus (Sharpe, 1875) - South-eastern Siberia, Sakhalin, north-eastern China, northern Korea.
japonicus Temminck & Schlegel, 1844 - Japan.
distans Friedmann & Deignan, 1939 - Northern and eastern Thailand and Indochina.
nicobaricus (Hume, 1876) - Nicobar Islands.

References
See References.

Files:

JPG files for Oriental Scops-Owl (Otus sunia) - 10 files

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