Gray owl

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Gray owl
PikiWiki Israel 21595 Strix hadorami - Ein Gedi.jpg

Great gray owl ( Strix hadorami )

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Owls (Strigiformes)
Family : Real owls (Strigidae)
Genre : Strix
Type : Gray owl
Scientific name
Strix hadorami
Kirwan , Schweizer & Copete , 2015

The gray owl ( Strix hadorami ) is a species of the real owls (Strigidae) that occurs in the Middle East . At times it was considered a subspecies Asio aluco butleri of the tawny owl or a population of Strix butleri (formerly called the gray owl , now known as the oman owl) until it was described as a separate species in 2015.

Discovery story

Although the taxon Strix butleri ( in the narrow sense ) was originally only known from the holotype , many authors considered it a species with a wide, but incoherent distribution in the Middle East. The occurrences ascribed to Strix butleri ( in a broad sense ) have been documented from Israel , eastern Egypt , Jordan and the Arabian Peninsula . However, the information about the geographical origin of the type specimen, shot by a bird collector named Nash, is doubtful. In his first description from 1878, Allan Octavian named Hume Omara on the coast of Makran in today's Pakistan as Terra typica , but a site on the Arabian Peninsula could not be ruled out. In 1985, the Israeli ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai examined the holotype of Strix butleri in the Natural History Museum at Tring and noticed that this specimen differed in important ways from specimens from Israel and contradicted his own fieldwork on these owls. He suggested naming the populations from Israel and the surrounding regions as a new subspecies of Strix butleri , but other commitments prevented him from doing so. In 2013, Magnus Robb, Arnoud B. van den Berg and Mark Constantine described the new taxon Strix omanensis based on photos from the Hajar Mountains in Oman . Since no type material for Strix omanensis existed, published Guy M. Kirwan , Manuel Swiss and José Luis Copete in 2015 a detailed analysis in which they have a synonymisation of Strix omanensis with Strix butleri recommended. A new name was now required for the populations from Israel and the neighboring regions, as they differed significantly from those from Oman. Based on a type specimen collected in Palestine in 1938 , Kirwan and his colleagues described the new species Strix hadorami and honored Hadoram Shirihai in the type epithet . In 2015, Magnus Robb and colleagues published a DNA study in which they demonstrated that Strix omanensis and Strix butleri are identical. At the same time, they were able to confirm the rediscovery of Strix butleri in Oman and Iran .

features

The gray owl reaches a total length of 30 to 35 cm, a wing span of 95 to 98 cm and a weight of about 140 to 284 g. The tail length is approximately 150 mm in the female and 134 to 140 mm in the male. The gray owl resembles the tawny owl in proportion and plumage. The latter, however, is darker and larger with dark brown to blackish eyes, partially feathered toes, and typically more erect. The top is conspicuously yellow-brown, light sand-brown and mottled with cinnamon. A distinctive gold-yellow-brown collar pattern runs over the coat. The chest is washed out golden-yellow-brown. The shoulder feathers and wing covers have light yellow-brown or white tips. The chest and flanks are brightly patterned. The legs are lightly feathered. The ear horns are missing. The iris is orange, the bill is yellowish-horn-colored and the toes are greyish. The face veil is mainly light sand gray or dirty white. The underside is light cream-colored with a light reddish-brown banding or thin brown shaft stripes. The rump and the tail-coverts are almost white without a pattern. The wing feathers are sand ocher with five visible bands on the hand wings or four on the arm wings. The control springs are marked by six dark bands.

distribution

The distribution area extends from the east and south of Israel over Jordan, the Sinai Peninsula, mountains near the Red Sea (in the east of Egypt and in the north-east of the Sudan) and in places to the Arabian Peninsula (in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and in the south of Oman).

habitat

The gray owl inhabits rocky gorges or gorges in semi-deserts and deserts, mostly with water sources nearby. Other habitats are found near acacias and palm groves and sometimes on building ruins. Occasionally it can be seen near settlements, but it generally does not claim any human-made habitats, at least in the Arabian Peninsula. In south-west Arabia it was detected at altitudes of up to 2800 m.

Way of life

The gray owl is nocturnal and crepuscular. It is characterized by high seat hunting, but occasionally it also catches insects in the air or on foot on the ground. Since it often hunts near roads and paths, it is relatively often a victim of traffic accidents. In Egypt, the species is most active at dusk and dawn, especially during a full moon, with hunting taking place from 50 minutes after sunset to 30 minutes before sunrise.

The food spectrum includes real gerbils ( Gerbillus ), the Sundevall racing rat ( Meriones crassus ), the golden spiny mouse ( Acomys russatus ), shrews as well as lizards and geckos. The birds captured include mainly small passerine birds such as the stone lark ( Ammomanes deserti ) and the house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ). Furthermore, scorpions, grasshoppers, beetles and other insects expand the food supply. In Egypt, the remains of grasshoppers, probably beetles, an unidentified vole, scorpions, the Ethiopian hedgehog (Paraechinus aethiopicu s), the Sinai fan- finger gecko ( Ptyodactylus guttatus ), the fan- finger species Ptyodactylus hasselquistii, as well as the unidentifiable passerine species were found in Egypt .

Little is known about the breeding season. In 1996, in his book The Birds of Israel , Hadoram Shirihai described a couple brooding in May in Israel on a nest with five eggs. The incubation period was 34 to 39 days. The young fledged after 30 to 40 days. In Saudi Arabia, the owls hatched on February 25 and had three eggs in the nest.

literature

  • David Brewer: Birds new to Science. Fifty Years of Avian Discoveries. Christopher Helm, London 2018, ISBN 978-1-4729-0628-1 , pp. 80–81
  • Denver W. Holt, Regan Berkley, Caroline Deppe, Paula L. Enríquez, Julie L. Petersen, José Luis Rangel Salazar, Kelley P. Segars, Kristin L. Wood, Guy M. Kirwan: Desert Owl (Strix hadorami) , version 1.0 . In: Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, DA Christie, and E. de Juana, eds.). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA, 2020

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Magnus Robb, Arnoud B. van den Berg, Mark Constantine: A new species of Strix owl from Oman. Dutch Birding, 35 (5), 2013, pp. 275-310
  2. ↑ a b Guy M. Kirwan, Manuel Schweizer, José Luis Copete: Multiple lines of evidence confirm that Hume's Owl Strix butleri (AO Hume, 1878) is two species, with description of an unnamed species (Aves: Non-Passeriformes: Strigidae) . In: Zootaxa. 3904, 1, 2015, pp. 28-50.
  3. ↑ Magnus S. Robb, George Sangster, Mansour Aliabadian, Arnoud B. van den Berg, Mark Constantine, Martin Irestedt, Ali Khani, Seyed Babak Musavi, João MG Nunes, Maïa Sarrouf Willson, Alyn J. Walsh The rediscovery of Strix butleri ( Hume, 1878) in Oman and Iran, with molecular resolution of the identity of Strix omanensis Robb, van den Berg and Constantine, 2013. In: Avian Research 7 (7), 2015, pp. 1–10. doi : 10.1186 / s40657-016-0043-4
  4. ↑ Seyed Babak Musavi, Ali Khani, Abolghasem Khaleghizadeh & Magnus Robb: The first confirmed records of Omani Owl, Strix butleri (AOHume, 1878) (Aves: Strigidae), from Iran. In: Zoology in the Middle East, 62: 1, 2016, pp. 21-24, doi : 10.1080 / 09397140.2015.1132563
  5. ↑ Claus König, Friedhelm Weick: Owls of the World. Christopher Helm, London 2008, pp. 364-365