Brown Wood Owl

Subspecies S. l. maingayi
Photo by the late Laurence Poh
Temenggor Forest in North Perak, Malaysia, August 2003

Strix leptogrammica

Includes Bartels's Wood-Owl; Himalayan Wood-Owl

Identification

Subspecies S. l. newarensis
Photo by Alok Tewari
Sattal Forest, Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, 6 April 2023

39–55 cm (15¼-21½ in)

• Dark brown upperparts
• White spotted shoulders
• Buff, brown-streaked underparts
• White or whitish facial disc with brown or rufous rim
• Dark brown iris
• White neckband
  

Sexes similar

Distribution

Asia: found in China, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Taiwan
Southeast Asia: Indochina, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Malay Peninsula, Brunei, Borneo, Indonesia, Greater Sundas, Sumatra

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Juvenile, Subspecies S. l. ticehursti
Photo © by Godwin Chan
Hong Kong, 9 June 2020

There are 14 subspecies^[1]:

• S. l. newarensis: Himalayan Wood-Owl Himalayas (Jammu and Kashmir to north-eastern India)
• S. l. ticehursti: Myanmar to south-eastern China, Thailand, northern Laos and northern Vietnam
• S. l. caligata: Hainan and Taiwan
• S. l. laotiana: Southern Laos and central Vietnam (Annam)
• S. l. indranee: Peninsular India
• S. l. ochrogenys: Sri Lanka
• S. l. maingayi: Southern Myanmar, southern Thailand and Malay Peninsula
• S. l. myrtha: Sumatra
• S. l. nyctiphasma: Banyak Island (off north-western Sumatra)
• S. l. niasensis: Nias Island (off north-western Sumatra)
• S. l. chaseni: Belitung Island (Java Sea off south-eastern Sumatra)
• S. l. vaga: Northern Borneo
• S. l. leptogrammica: Central and southern Borneo
• S. l. bartelsi: Bartel's Wood-Owl Java

Habitat

Dense lowland primary rainforest (broad-leaved and evergreen) and forest edges, up to 2,590m. Avoids human habitated areas.

Juvenile, subspecies S. l. maingayi
Photo by darwin1601
Fraser's Hill, Malaysia

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes small mammals, especially rodents; also reptiles, grasshoppers and birds. A bird in Java is known to have eaten a bat.

Breeding

They nest in a tree cavity. The clutch consists of 2 eggs.

Vocalisation

They make a very low purring sound. Call is 3-4 short hoots.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Feb 2018)
4. BirdForum Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Brown Wood Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 28 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Brown_Wood_Owl

External Links

Search for photos of Brown Wood Owl in the gallery

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.