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
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.
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.
Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia) [XC451143]
by Sreekumar Chirukandoth from Khammam, Andhra Pradesh, India (call)
Oriental Scops Owl (Otus sunia) [XC468191]
by Common Jeff\uff08\u9ebb\u6770\u592b\uff09 from Beijing, Beijing Shi, China (call, 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).
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).