Spotted Eagle-Owl (Bubo) [XC444692]
by Lynette Rudman from Grahamstown, Western District, Eastern Cape, South Africa (begging call)
Spotted Eagle-Owl (Bubo) [XC715709]
by Dries Van de Loock from Pomfret (near Tosca), Bophirima, North West, South Africa (call, cattle chewing the cud, cricket)
Subspecies
Often considered to include Greyish Eagle-Owl (Bubo cinerascens) as a subspecies. Taxonomic status of subspecies milesi not well understood, possibly specifically distinct. Subspecies tanae perhaps only pale variant, as is form described from Namibia (trothae).
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
milesi Sharpe, 1886 - South-western Arabia, Yemen and Oman.
africanus (Temminck, 1821) - Gabon east to Zaire (south of rainforest), southern Uganda and central Kenya, south to the Cape.
tanae Keith and Twomey, 1968 - R Tana and Lali Hills, in south-eastern Kenya.