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Omani Owl (1 Viewer)

I have just posted this in the other thread, but might be of interest to readers here too:

The bird in the photographs is indeed the holotype.

I have just read the article in Dutch Birding and it is very thorough indeed!

Some morphological differences compared to Hume's Owl:
  • bicoloured facial disk (HO plain facial disk)
  • upperparts very dark 'cold' greyish brown (HO pale)
  • only vertical lines on the underparts (HO horizontal and vertical)
  • broad dark trailing edge and wing tips (HO rather pale outer wing)
  • tail very dark in appearance (HO rather pale)
Click to expand...
 
Richard Klim said:
Ian, I think Sherpa was referring to Keith's thread on the Live Bird News forum, which I hadn't noticed when I first saw his post on MEBirdNet.
Click to expand...

It least I tried. I suppose it is not such a chore to check two threads (or three) and read some of the same posts twice.
 
I'm sure the paper describing the species discusses this, but it's interesting that Hume's Tawny Owl was described from the Makran Coast in Pakistani Baluchistan. This is a relatively short distance across the Gulf of Oman from the location for Omani Owl, and certainly closer than sites for Hume's in Dhofar. I presume specimens of Hume's from Pakistan / Iran have been examined to exclude the possibility that the 'new' owl isn't what was originally described as butleri?
 
DMW said:
I'm sure the paper describing the species discusses this, but it's interesting that Hume's Tawny Owl was described from the Makran Coast in Pakistani Baluchistan. This is a relatively short distance across the Gulf of Oman from the location for Omani Owl, and certainly closer than sites for Hume's in Dhofar. I presume specimens of Hume's from Pakistan / Iran have been examined to exclude the possibility that the 'new' owl isn't what was originally described as butleri?
Click to expand...

Indeed they have looked at this. They have looked at all Strix specimens collected in Arabia, and all turned out to be Hume's. They have looked at the holotype of Hume's as well (kept in Tring) and that is a proper Hume's (but no location was given for the type specimen).
 
DMW said:
I'm sure the paper describing the species discusses this, but it's interesting that Hume's Tawny Owl was described from the Makran Coast in Pakistani Baluchistan. This is a relatively short distance across the Gulf of Oman from the location for Omani Owl, and certainly closer than sites for Hume's in Dhofar.
Click to expand...
Btw, just checked König & Weick 2008 (Owls of the World) and found that it has a completely bizarre range map for Hume's Owl, depicting a distribution throughout N Oman & UAE (!) but completely absent from Dhofar... :eek!:
 
MarcelHaas said:
Indeed they have looked at this. They have looked at all Strix specimens collected in Arabia, and all turned out to be Hume's. They have looked at the holotype of Hume's as well (kept in Tring) and that is a proper Hume's (but no location was given for the type specimen).
Click to expand...

Thanks Marcel. Out of interest, I looked-up Hume's description in Stray Feathers it seems the type was obtained from a friend of a friend and he 'believes' it came from Omara, in Balochistan. This leaves open the possibility that it was imported from Arabia, and I wonder if there are any definite records of butleri from Iran / Pakistan?
Cheers
Duncan
 
DMW said:
...I wonder if there are any definite records of butleri from Iran / Pakistan?
Click to expand...
Scott 2008 (Rare birds in Iran in the late 1960s and 1970s):
APPENDIX II: Doubtful records
Hume's Tawny Owl Strix butleri: Both Vaurie (1965) and Hüe & Etchécopar (1970) referred to an old report from the Mekran coast in Baluchestan (Pakistan), and concluded that the species probably occurred along the coast of the Persian Gulf and Persian Baluchestan. Jervis Read (1958) included it in his list of the birds of Iran, as did Scott et al. (1975). However, there do not appear to have been any confirmed records of the species in Iran, and the validity of the report from the Mekran coast in 1920 has been questioned.
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Roselaar & Aliabadian 2009 (Review of Rare Birds in Iran, 1860s–1960s):
Appendix II. List of hypothetical species perhaps occurring in Iran during the period 1860s–1960s.
Hume's Owl Strix butleri
This species was described as new for science by A.O. Hume (1878), based on a specimen obtained from a Mr Nash living in Ormara (Pakistan Balochistan). For almost a century no other specimens of the species came to knowledge, and this bird was considered to be an extremely rare taxon supposedly restricted to the Makran coast, including that of Iranian Baluchestan. Since the 1970s, the species became better known, and it is now known as a resident in wadis in SE Egypt, the Sinai, the Arava valley north to the Dead Sea basin, and the Arabian peninsula. No bird has been found again on the Makran coast, and likely the type specimen was brought to Ormara over sea from Arabia.
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Rasmussen & Anderton 2012 (Birds of South Asia):
Hypothetical in region
Only basis for occurrence in region is the type specimen, of unknown provenance but usually assumed on slim evidence (perhaps correctly) to be Mekran Coast of Pakistan. Not otherwise known from Asia (Goodman & Sabry 1984).
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I wonder is this, in the fulness of time, and with some sort of DNA sample taken will turn out to be a subspecies of butleri. After all, Cyprus populations of Scops Owls sound rather different from mainland populations. Are there any other species pairs that follow similar biogeographic patterns? there's a nice map on the Dutch Birding website (scroll down to the end) http://www.dutchbirding.nl/news.php?id=866

It's a shame that this has been hurried through without a specimen/sample.
 
njlarsen said:
There are those who would take that as evidence for the population to be a different species.

Niels
Click to expand...

They surely must be - my recordings of the Cypriot bird, with its additional quiet note (sample one bird seen singing at Bellapais!), does differ from the continental birds. I'm looking forward (hoping that) to AvB, MR & DC splitting this one! B :)

cheers, alan
 
Richard Klim said:
Scott 2008 (Rare birds in Iran in the late 1960s and 1970s):

Roselaar & Aliabadian 2009 (Review of Rare Birds in Iran, 1860s–1960s):

Rasmussen & Anderton 2012 (Birds of South Asia):
Click to expand...

Thanks Richard. So Hume's really does appear to be an OSME endemic!
 
DMW said:
Thanks Richard. So Hume's really does appear to be an OSME endemic!
Click to expand...

Quite possibly, but it should be remembered that vast parts of southern Iran appear to be good habitat for Hume's Owl and there are virtually no persons active in the field across much these very remote regions, even less so at night.
 
Ian Lewis said:
Apparently the subspecies sepikensis of Hooded Mannikin Lonchura spectabilis has been named from photographs and has been accepted in subsequent works. Also a new African monkey Lophocebus kipunji and an Iguana from Galápagos have been accepted without a specimen.

ian
Click to expand...

The Kipunji has, IIRC, since had material collected for it, so it is known from specimens. Which isn't surprising given that I believe the animal has been a regular staple of the local diet.
 
I will be curious to see the description...Dutch Birding isn't exactly the first journal I would pitch a new species of owl.
 
I will be curious to see the description...Dutch Birding isn't exactly the first journal I would pitch a new species of owl.

But when one of the discoverers of the new species is the chief editor of Dutch Birding it makes it the obvious choice!

There is a strong connection between the Sound Approach and Dutch Birding, both in personnel and financially.

Description will be available in two hours time!

Ian
 
Ian Lewis said:
I will be curious to see the description...Dutch Birding isn't exactly the first journal I would pitch a new species of owl.

But when one of the discoverers of the new species is the chief editor of Dutch Birding it makes it the obvious choice!

There is a strong connection between the Sound Approach and Dutch Birding, both in personnel and financially.

Description will be available in two hours time!

Ian
Click to expand...

This reminds me of a recent discussion in one of the SACC proposals, where Van Remsen came with a statement which I paraphrase to: an editor should not submit to his own journal because of the risk that reviewers will do a less thorough job in reviewing such a paper.

I have no inside information and have not read the paper, hopefully it is good and in no need for changes.

Niels
 
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