Oriental Scops Owl - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Peter Ericsson
Rangsit, Bangkok, Thailand, April 2003

Otus sunia

Identification

18–21 cm Two colour morphs: grey-brown and rufous

Distribution

Asia: Russia, Siberia, Mongolia, China, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Eastern and Western Himalayas, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan
Southeast Asia: Indochina, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Borneo, Indonesia, Greater Sundas, Sumatra

Accidental vagrant to the Aleutians in Alaska (1 record).

Greyish morph
Photo by SeeToh
Former Bidadari Cemtery, Singapore, December 2014

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 7 subspecies^[1]:

• O. s. sunia:

• Northern Pakistan to Bangladesh and northern India

• O. s. rufipennis:

• Southern India

• O. s. leggei:

• Sri Lanka

• O. s. modestus:

• Assam to Myanmar, Thailand, Indochina; Andaman and Nicobar Islands

• O. s. malayanus:

• Southern China (Yunnan to eastern Guangdong)

• O. s. stictonotus:

• South-eastern Siberia to north-eastern China, Sakhalin Island and northern Korea

• O. s. japonicus:

• Japan

Habitat

Dry deciduous forests.

Behaviour

Diet

Their main diet consists of insects and spiders. They also eat rodents and small birds.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved January 2015)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Oriental Scops Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Oriental_Scops_Owl

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