Need help with scops-owl (1 Viewer)

Hello,

Back on New Guinea now and spend the first few days in Port Moresby, I walked in a fruit/pet market a few days ago and come a cross a bird which I wasent very familiar with, I know its somekind of scops-owl but not sure which species it is.

EDIT: opps sorry, but it in wrong category. can someone please move it to the id section.

Interesting. It certainly looks like a scops to me, but, as far as I'm aware the only scops owl found in PNG is the Moluccan Scops. However, this bird is only found on Biak and, obviously, the Moluccas. It seems surprising to me that one should turn up in a pet market in Port Moresby. I suppose that if it's come from that far away it could belong to various other species of scops owl. It's tantalising, though, to wonder if it might have been caught locally,
John

... further to the above I note that most authorities now split the Biak population. Browing my various books on owls it does seem odd that PNG is so relatively impoverished in terms of owls. Odd too that some sort of scops Owl isn't found there when it is found in what must be, superficially at least, similar habitats elswhere. It does look as if this bird must have come a very long way however it got to Port Moresby! I've taken the liberty of emailing your photo to an old friend of mine who is something of an expert on the birds of Papua New Guinea. If he's not off somewhere exotic leading a bird tour (as is probably the case) I'll pass any comments on to you,
John