Sao Tome Scops Owl - BirdForum Opus

Identification

16-19 cm. A small Scops Owl with tiny ear-tufts.

Light rufous-brown facial disc
White chin and eyebrows
Warm rufous-brown crown and upperparts with rufous vermiculations and blackish shaft streaks, scapulars with black-tipped white spots
Flight-feathers mottled with buff and white
Narrow buff bars on tail
Finely vermiculated underparts with brown, rufous and white and bold black streaking
Unfeathered tarsus
Yellow bill and eye

A grey-brown morph occurs but seems to be very rare.
Juveniles are paler, finely barred light brown on underparts and upperparts.

Endemic to Sao Tomé. Possibly also on Principe.
A poorly known restricted-range species.

This is a monotypic species.
May be closely related to Rainforest Scops Owl, however song similar to African Scops Owl. Formerly considered to be a subspecies of European Scops Owl.

Moist lowland primary and secondary forests. Also in plantations.
Occurs up to 1300 m.

Appears to be partly diurnal.

Feeds on insects, takes also some small lizards.
Forages in lowar parts of forest, hunting from a perch 1.5 to 10 m above the ground.

Fledlings seen in October. Breeding season possibly before start of short rains August to October. No other information.

Presumably a resident species.

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2013. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.8., with updates to August 2013. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved July 2014)

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Sao Tome Scops Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 17 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sao_Tome_Scops_Owl