Papuan birder
Sunday 27th August 2006, 23:12
Advice needed in search for Taliabu masked owl Tyto nigrobrunnea
Hello,
Aim back home again after spending three days (mainly in business) in the east Sulu Islands (A group of Islands located between Sulawesi and Halmahera). I stayed on Mangole and Sanana during this time (about half the time on each), mostly worked during the days but I was mostly free during the nights and mornings and I decided to spend most of my spare time to go birding.
Lately I have got some e-mail contact with a Dutch guy which visited these Islands in the 1990s, I asked him abut about the Taliabu masked-owl, this owl is so far only known with certainty from the main Island in the group, Taliabu, but according to him this large owl is unlikely to be confined solely to Talibu (only known from a single locality on Eastern Taliabu) and due to the closeness it wouldn’t be surprising if "someone" found it on Sanana and Mangole.
Although during my three days on these two Islands I only managed to find barn owl (uncommon) and eastern grass owl (rare), I interviewed a dozen locals (mostly hunters and illegal loggers), also showed them the pic found in the HBW book, no one was familiar with this owl and I wasn’t able to obtain any reliable records or sightings made. At dusk and night I also birding x number of hours along roads in logging concessions (the only habitat from where this owl has been found in recent years).
Although with that said, aim planning on visiting Taliabu in the near-future and could need some advice on habitat, areas on Taliabu worth looking for in hunt for this species, could Which areas except Tubang could it be worth searching for it? is there a possibility that it only exist on Taliabu or could it be found on some other close by Islands? Can you expect to find it in other parts of Taliabu except the east; could it occur over a relatively large area? and last, is there any possibility to even find it because it is apparently extremely shy and no one has found it since 1991, despite several attempts (I know that at least two people has tried to find it since, both has failed).
Hopefully I can get some advice which helps me resolve some things about this puzzling bird, to see one would be truly amazing.
Thanks in advance
PB
Hello,
Aim back home again after spending three days (mainly in business) in the east Sulu Islands (A group of Islands located between Sulawesi and Halmahera). I stayed on Mangole and Sanana during this time (about half the time on each), mostly worked during the days but I was mostly free during the nights and mornings and I decided to spend most of my spare time to go birding.
Lately I have got some e-mail contact with a Dutch guy which visited these Islands in the 1990s, I asked him abut about the Taliabu masked-owl, this owl is so far only known with certainty from the main Island in the group, Taliabu, but according to him this large owl is unlikely to be confined solely to Talibu (only known from a single locality on Eastern Taliabu) and due to the closeness it wouldn’t be surprising if "someone" found it on Sanana and Mangole.
Although during my three days on these two Islands I only managed to find barn owl (uncommon) and eastern grass owl (rare), I interviewed a dozen locals (mostly hunters and illegal loggers), also showed them the pic found in the HBW book, no one was familiar with this owl and I wasn’t able to obtain any reliable records or sightings made. At dusk and night I also birding x number of hours along roads in logging concessions (the only habitat from where this owl has been found in recent years).
Although with that said, aim planning on visiting Taliabu in the near-future and could need some advice on habitat, areas on Taliabu worth looking for in hunt for this species, could Which areas except Tubang could it be worth searching for it? is there a possibility that it only exist on Taliabu or could it be found on some other close by Islands? Can you expect to find it in other parts of Taliabu except the east; could it occur over a relatively large area? and last, is there any possibility to even find it because it is apparently extremely shy and no one has found it since 1991, despite several attempts (I know that at least two people has tried to find it since, both has failed).
Hopefully I can get some advice which helps me resolve some things about this puzzling bird, to see one would be truly amazing.
Thanks in advance
PB