Orient scops owl
| Orient scops owl | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oriental scops owl ( Otus sunia ) |
||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Otus sunia | ||||||||||
| ( Hodgson , 1836) |
The Orient Zwergohreule ( Otus sunia ) is an owl from the genus of scops owl . It is common in South and East Asia.
description
The very small owl with visible feather ears reaches a length of 17 to 21 centimeters and weighs 75 to 95 grams, with the female being on average six grams heavier than the male. The eyes are yellow, the beak black. On the shoulder feathers there are black-edged, whitish-brown spots, wings and tail are banded light-dark. The legs are feathered up to the base of the gray-brown toes and have black-brown claws.
There are three color morphs. The red morph is reddish brown on top, light below and dull yellowish to white towards the belly. The gray-brown and reddish-gray morphs are much more spotted and dashed at the top.
Way of life
The Oriental scops owl inhabits semi-open and open woodlands, parks, savannas and tree-lined river banks, as well as settlements from the lowlands to the mountains, in the Himalayas up to 2,300 meters above sea level. It lives mainly on insects and spiders, but occasionally also prey on small vertebrates. Their three-syllable rough kroik ku kjuuh can be heard several hundred meters away.
distribution
The distribution area extends from West India , Sri Lanka and North Pakistan to East Siberia , Japan , Taiwan and the Malay Peninsula . O. s. sunia inhabits Pakistan and Nepal as far as Assam and Bangladesh . O. s. stictonotus from Manchuria to Korea is the largest and brightest subspecies. In Os japonica on Hokkaido and Kyushu , the red morph frequently. O. s. modestus, which is characterized by its wing shape, is found from Assam to Myanmar , north-west Thailand and Indochina as well as on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands , with the poorly drawn specimens of these archipelagos sometimes as subspecies O. s. nicobarius be severed. At O. s. malayanus from South China to the Malay Peninsula, the foot is less feathered and the plumage more chestnut brown. O. s. rufipennis from Bombay to Madras is similar but darker. O. s. leggei from Sri Lanka is a small and dark subspecies that also has a cinnamon-brown morph.
literature
- Heimo Mikkola: Handbook owls of the world. All 249 species in 750 color photos. Original title: Owls of the World. A photographic guide. 2012, German-language edition, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co.KG, Stuttgart 2013, ISBN 978-3-440-13275-3 , p. 152.