Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Scops owls are typical owls in family Strigidae belonging to the genus Otus and are restricted to the Old World. Otus is the largest genus of owls with 59 species.Scops owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter underside and/or face, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees.
The Eurasian scops owl is 19–21 cm (7.5–8.3 in) in length with a wingspan of 47–54 cm (19–21 in). This is somewhat smaller than the little owl (Athene noctua). It perches upright and shows small ear-tufts. The plumage is predominantly grey-brown in colour, with a paler face, underparts and shoulder line.
Single calls made by the Flores scops owl are quick and sharp notes, which are translated as "UH!" sounds and last 1.5-2.5 seconds with a frequency of 0.6-0.9kHz. [6] Territorial calls are more prevalent among the Flores scops owls. They are described as a distinctive "short burst of loud, rapid staccato notes" and are translated as "UH-UH-UH ...
The Pemba scops owl is a medium-sized scops-owl with short ear-tufts. There are two colour morphs, a brown morph which is mainly pale rufous-brown with light streaking on the head and faint barring on paler underparts and a rufous morph which is a bright, rich rufous, that is paler on the underwing coverts.
A very small scops owl which is heavily streaked and barred on its pale sandy-grey upperparts, paler underparts with darker shaft streaks and fine, dark barring. The plain facial disc has vague margins and the shoulder stripe is not as conspicuous as in other scops owls and are sandy-coloured. The ear-tufts are very small and the eyes are yellow.
The taxonomy is in a state of flux but recent genetic studies have placed the Pemba scops owl closer to the clade containing the African scops owl Otus sengalensis, while the Mayotte scops owl is clearly separate from the remaining two.
Genus Scops was lumped into Otus in the early 20th century but in the early 21st century the current Megascops was adopted for what are now 23 species of screech owls. [3] [5] The long-tufted screech owl was at different times treated as a subspecies or a synonym of what is now the black-capped screech owl (Megascops atricapilla).
The Karthala scops owl lacks ear-tufts and comes in two colour forms, a light morph and a dark morph. The light morph is dark greyish-brown on the upperparts with fine barring and pale spots along the scapulars. The underparts are reddish-buff with a dense pattern of fine barring on the flight feathers and tail.