- Glaucidium perlatum
Identification
Length 17-20 cm (6½-7¾ in)
- Brown upperparts with many white spots
- White underparts with brown streaks
- White facial disc
- Yellow eyes
- Two nuchal eyespots
Sexes are similar, but young birds are paler with a shorter tail.
Distribution
Africa south of the Sahara:
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, eSwatini
Taxonomy
Subspecies
Clements recognises the following subspecies [1]:
- G. p. perlatum Senegambia to western Sudan
- G. p. diurnum Eastern Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, northwestern Somalia, and Uganda south to Angola and Namibia, northern Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique
- G. p. licua Southern Namibia, southern Botswana, and northern and eastern South Africa
Habitat
Open woodland and savannah.
Behaviour
Diet
They hunt a variety of small prey by day. Their diet mostly consists of arthropods but they also eat bats, rodents, lizards and birds.
Vocalisation
The call is a whistled tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu-tu.
Breeding
It makes its nests in a hole in a tree. Two to four eggs are laid.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved August 2015)
- Wikipedia
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Pearl-spotted Owlet. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Pearl-spotted_Owlet
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
