Brown Wood Owl - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies 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

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

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 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.

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. (2021) Brown Wood Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 May 2021 from https://www.birdforum.net/wiki/Brown_Wood_Owl

External Links

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