Brown Wood Owl - BirdForum Opus

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, Nias Wood Owl, Sunda 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)

upperparts dark brown
shoulders spotted white
underparts buff, brown-streaked
facial disc white or whitish with brown or rufous rim
iris dark brown
neckband white

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

Reference [5] separates subspecies bartelsi, chaseni, leptogrammica, myrtha, niasensis, nyctiphasma and vaga as "Sunda Wood Owl", S. leptogrammica based on morphological and vocal differences. It notes that niasensis may be elevated separately as "Nias Wood Owl", S. niasensis for the same reasons.

Subspecies

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

Clements recognises the following 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: "Sunda Wood Owl". Sumatra
S. l. nyctiphasma: "Sunda Wood Owl". Banyak Island (off north-western Sumatra)
S. l. niasensis: "Nias Wood Owl" or "Sunda Wood Owl". Nias Island (off north-western Sumatra)
S. l. chaseni: "Sunda Wood Owl". Belitung Island (Java Sea off south-eastern Sumatra)
S. l. vaga: "Sunda Wood Owl". Northern Borneo
S. l. leptogrammica: "Sunda Wood Owl". Central and southern Borneo
S. l. bartelsi: "Bartel's Wood-Owl" or "Sunda 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

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/
Avibase
Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Feb 2018)
BirdForum Member observations
Eaton, JA, B van Balen, NW Brickle, FE Rheindt 2021. Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago (Greater Sundas and Wallacea), Second Edition. Lynx Editions. ISBN978-84-16728-44-2

List of references

Recommended Citation

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Brown Wood Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 7 December 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Brown_Wood_Owl

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