Rajah scops owl

Rajah scops owl
	Rajah scops owl
Systematics
Class :	Birds (aves)
Order :	Owls (Strigiformes)
Family :	Real owls (Strigidae)
Genre :	Scops Owls ( Otus )
Type :	Rajah scops owl
Scientific name
	Otus brookii
	Sharpe , 1892

Drawing of the rajah scops owl from 1893

The raja scops owl ( Otus brookii ), also Raja scops owl , is a medium-sized representative of the scops owls from the family of real owls, measuring 21-25 centimeters . The species is endemic to Sumatra and Borneo . It got its name because of James Brooke , the White Raja of Sarawak .

Appearance

The rajah scops owl has a reddish brown plumage. The "feather ears" are quite long at 29–49 mm. The belly is light brown and patterned by the dark pen shafts. The light to white thick feathers over the eyes and the beak, which run crosswise, are very noticeable. The wing tips are white, the otherwise red-brown tail feathers also have several white spots. The legs have white plumage and long, sharp claws. They have light to white bulges above the large eyes. The subspecies Otus brookii solokensis is more brown and has a more yellowish tinge on the top.

Calls

Her singing is loud double howling "ua-uuu". The two tones are called 0.2 seconds and 0.7 seconds apart. the chant is usually repeated 7 to 10 seconds apart.

distribution and habitat

The species occurs in two subspecies, which are endemic to the mountain forests of Sumatra ( Otus brookii solokensis , Hartert , 1893 ) and north-west Borneos ( Otus brookii brookii , Sharpe , 1892 ). It inhabits the rainforests and cloud forests in cave locations from 900 to 2,500 meters, preferably at altitudes between 1,200 and 2,400 meters.

Way of life

The nocturnal owl spends the day in the canopy of higher trees or in a tree hollow. When it gets dark she goes hunting for insects . One investigation also found a frog in the stomach of a rajah scops owl.

Reproduction

It breeds in tree hollows of palms and other trees or in crevices in house walls. The female lays 2–3 eggs in the bare nest. The hatching, which lasts 26 days, is done by the female alone. Meanwhile, the male provides it with food. The parents defend their young very vigorously against all foreign intruders, even if they are significantly larger than themselves.

Danger

Since no specific population trends and threats are yet known for this type, it is by the IUCN provisionally as uncritical ( least concern ) but as Decreasing therefore, decreasing classified. The species, in particular the nominate form O. b. brookii on Borneo, considered threatened by large-scale deforestation. The subspecies Otus brookii brookii from Borneo is only proven by two bellows from the years 1892 and 1893 and could already be extinct.

Occur with other small owls

The rajah scops owl occurs together with the equally large Sunda scops owl and the somewhat smaller owl species fox owl and red owl .

literature

Jiří Felix (eds.), Květoslav Hísek: Asian fauna in color. , Page 128. From the Czech by Ingeborg Šestáková. Karl Müller Verlag, Erlangen 1991.
Claus König , Friedhelm Weick: Owls of the World . Christopher Helm, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7136-6548-2
DW Holt, R. Berkley, C. Deppe, P. Enríquez Rocha, JL Petersen, JL Rangel Salazar, KP Segars, KL Wood and JSMarks: Rajah Scops-owl ( Otus brookii ) . In: J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, DA Christie & E. de Juana, E. (Eds.): Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2019 ( hbw.com [accessed June 4, 2019]).
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 2013, Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co.KG, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-440-13275-3

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c König and Weick, p. 271 f.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Heimo Mikkola: Handbook owls of the world. All 249 species in 750 color photos. Original title: Owls of the World. A Photographic Guide, 2012, p. 168
^ F. Weick: Owls (Strigiformes): Annotated and Illustrated Checklist. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York, 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-35234-1 , p. 62, ( reading sample ).
^ Rajah Scops-owl: Otus brookii at The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018

Web links

Commons : Raja Scops - Collection of images, videos, and audio files

Otus brookii inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019.1. Listed by: BirdLife International, 2018. Retrieved May 1, 2019.

[koenig-1] König and Weick, p. 271 f.

[Mikkola-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Heimo Mikkola: Handbook owls of the world. All 249 species in 750 color photos. Original title: Owls of the World. A Photographic Guide, 2012, p. 168

[Weick,_2006-3] F. Weick: Owls (Strigiformes): Annotated and Illustrated Checklist. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York, 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-35234-1 , p. 62, ( reading sample ).

[4] Rajah Scops-owl: Otus brookii at The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018