tags: African Scops-Owl, Otus senegalensis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz
[Mystery bird] African Scops-Owl, Otus senegalensis, photographed in subsaharan Africa. [I will identify this bird for you tomorrow]
Image: Thomas Dressler, 2008.
Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification.
Rick Wright, Managing Director of WINGS Birding Tours Worldwide, writes:
I'm at a loss. I know where this bird was photographed, and so I know what it has to be, but I fail miserably at the little test I like to set myself: could I identify this bird correctly if I discovered it thousands of miles out of range? Not hardly, as they say.
This is obviously a small eared owl, what in the Old World is called a scops-owl Otus and in the New World a screech-owl Megascops. (That latter genus name is a bit of an oxymoron, a "giant shrimp.") Not that long ago, the scops-owls of Europe and Africa were easy: they were all simply Scops Owl, members of a widespread and common species, but careful study has revealed that the complex actually includes a number of bafflingly similar "cryptic" species, distinguishable only by voice and the biochemist. The silent bird in this photo, an African Scops-Owl, can probably not be told visually from its very close relative the Eurasian Scops-Owl, which overlaps with it in winter across a broad band of sub-Saharan Africa.
More and more such cryptic species are being discovered, and we'd better be prepared for it. Taxonomic splits are the wave of the future, a delight for the die-hard lister and a puzzle for the careful birder anywhere in the world.
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Has to be African Scops Owl, but it's a ringer for Eastern Screech Owl. The only bird it could be confused with in that part of the world is the Eurasian Scops Owl.
Not having an African field guide, I'm not sure at all. Based on a quick googling of images, my guess is Eurasian Scops Owl (Otus scops).
Yes it definitely is the Eurasian Scops Owl. When i was much younger we had these every (L'hibou i think it was called in french). Apparently they are nocturnal and don't find their way round places very easily during the day. I remember one got electrocuted once when it got stock in a high voltage power cable.
OK, now we've got the bird sorted, what species is the tree?
Nice camouflage!
My Kenya field guide shows African Scops Owl with a pale bill and Eurasian with a dark bill like the illustrated bird. Based on that I vote for Eurasian Scops Owl.