Collared Scops Owl - South of Thailand this afternoon (1 Viewer)

[Aladdin]

Dear Members and Bird Watchers!

I was visiting Ai Kai tempel and as usually I had my eBird app running just in case I run in to something interesting. Going back to my car and I had two Common Myna and three Eurasian Tree Sparrows. Nothing to be impressed about.

Walking back to the car and I heard loud noises from a tree outside the toilet and I went to check it out. I see two Streak-eared Bulbuls sitting on a branch "screaming" I spotted an owl and they were mobbing the owl together with a couple of sunbirds.

I discover two more owls 1 meter away (Picture XX) and I think this is two babies and the picture X is the adult.

There are 3 options in eBird:
Collared
Sunda
Oriental

I decided to go got collared due to the red eye rings and black eyes. The other options had yellow and black eyes and no red ring around the eyes.

Anyone disagree with me when I ID these birds on the attached pictures as Collared Scops Owl.

Kind regards and Happy Birding
Aladdin

 

[Butty]

I think these are all young owls just emerged from the nest and still in mesoptyl plumage, so they won't necessarily look much like the adults or like field-guide pictures. The bird in pic 1 looks different (including the orbital ring) only because the lighting is different. Note that the central part of a bird's eye, the pupil, is always black and should be ignored; the colour to look at is only the iris, and here it is dark brown.

 

[Aladdin]

Thank you Butty!

And they were very small. So yes,they might as well be babies all of them. Always hard to take pictures when the birds are between me and the sun so I have used different over exposure on the different pictures.

Tanks again, appreciated!
Aladdin

 

[Jos Stratford]

Thank you Butty!
. Always hard to take pictures when the birds are between me and the sun so I have used different over exposure on the different pictures.

I'd say these are excellent photos, especially the second 👍

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Interested that ebird gave both Sunda and Collared as options. Is there any range overlap between these species?

 

[Aladdin]

Interested that ebird gave both Sunda and Collared as options. Is there any range overlap between these species?

Hello Larry Sweetland.

Only 3 Scops owls in eBird for this area.
Collared
Sunda
Oriental

Collared have been reported all the way south to the Malaysian border in eBird. Nothing south of that.

Sunda have been reported as far north as Chumpon in Thailand in Thailand.

The reason for me to ID my birds as Collared is the red ring around the eyes. But the Sunda have redish tings as well. I just think it is more like the collared when I compare pictures on internet.

Kind Regards
Aladdin

 

[Aladdin]

I'd say these are excellent photos, especially the second 👍

Thank you Joe for your heart warming words!

Kind Regards
Aladdin