Japanese Scops Owl (Otus semitorques) [XC478511]
by Miyagi Kunitaro from Kunigami, Kunigami-gun, Okinawa, Japan (call)
Japanese Scops Owl (Otus semitorques) [XC156142]
by Peter Boesman from Oku area, Kunigami, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan (call)
Subspecies
Probably forms superspecies with Mentawai Scops-Owl (Otus mentawi), Indian Scops-Owl (Otus bakkamoena), Collared Scops-Owl (Otus lettia), Sunda Scops-Owl (Otus lempiji), Palawan Scops-Owl (Otus fuliginosus) and Luzon Lowland Scops-Owl (Otus megalotis). Formerly treated as subspecies of highly variable Indian Scops-Owl (Otus bakkamoena), but significant differences in vocalizations, as well in eye colour, indicate separate species. Sometimes considered to include subspecies ussuriensis of Collared Scops-Owl (Otus lettia), which closer to present species in voice and plumage characters, and also intermediate in eye colour. Possibly better included as subspecies of present species.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
semitorques Temminck & Schlegel, 1850 - Southern Kuril Is (Urup south to Kunashir), and Hokkaido south to Yakushima, including Sado, Tsushima, Goto Is and Yakushima.
pryeri (Gurney Sr, 1889) - Southern Izu Is (Hachijo) and southern Ryukyu Is (Okinawa to Iriomote).
ussuriensis (Buturlin, 1910) - Sakhalin, Ussuriland and north-eastern China.