From Opus

Photo by juninho
Mountain Village Lodge, Arusha, Tanzania, February 2006

Strix woodfordii

[edit] Identification

30-36 cm

• Brown upperparts with white spots
• Whitish underparts with reddish and dark barring
• Brown facial disk with white eyebrows
• Dark eyes
• No ear tufts.

[edit] Distribution

Widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa, found in:
Western Africa: Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zanzibar, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland
African Islands: Gulf of Guinea Islands, Bioko (Fernando Po)

[edit] Taxonomy

There are four subspecies;

[edit] Subspecies^[1]

• S. w. nuchalis:

• Senegambia to southern Sudan, Uganda, northern Angola, western Zaire; Bioko

• S. w. umbrina:

• Ethiopia and south-eastern Sudan

• S. w. nigricantior:

• Southern Somalia to Kenya, Tanzania, Zanzibar and eastern Zaire

• S. w. woodfordii:

• Southern Angola to southern Zaire, Botswana, south-western Tanzania and South Africa

[edit] Habitat

Forest and woodland; also plantations.

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes insects, reptiles, small mammals and birds.

[edit] Breeding

They nest in a tree cavity. 1-3 eggs are laid and incubated for about 31 days. The young fledge at 5 weeks of age and can fly by 7 weeks. The young remain with parents up to 4 months and sometimes stay until the next breeding season.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase
3. World Owl Trust

• List of references

[edit] External Links