Dusky eagle-owl | |
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Dusky eagle-owl in Keoladeo National Park, Bharatpur, Rajasthan, India. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Strigiformes |
Family: | Strigidae |
Genus: | Ketupa |
Species: | K. coromanda |
Binomial name | |
Ketupa coromanda (Latham, 1790) | |
The dusky eagle-owl (Ketupa coromanda) is an owl species in the family Strigidae that is widespread in South and Southeast Asia. The type specimen used to describe the species was collected on the Coromandel Coast, which was used for the specific epithet. [2] It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The species's extent of occurrence is estimated at 9,250,000 km2 (3,570,000 sq mi). [1] However, volunteer generated databases such as eBird.org suggest that the available extent of occurrence is a vast over-estimate.
The species was first described by John Latham in 1790 as Strix coromanda. This is the nominate subspecies that occurs in South Asia. In the 20th century, the following subspecies was described: [2]
The dusky eagle-owl is a large greyish-brown owl with prominent ear tufts. Its underparts are greyish white with some dark brown streaks, and its dark brown wings have some whitish streaks. K. c. klossii is similar to the nominate subspecies but much darker and with no obvious whitish markings on wings and scapulars. Wings are 380–435 mm, and tail is 187–224 mm. [2]
The dusky eagle-owl occurs from Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bangladesh to Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia into China. [1] In Peninsular Malaysia, it has been recorded in oil palm plantations during surveys carried out between autumn 2009 and 2010 in the states of Selangor, Perak, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan.
It inhabits forests, wooded wetlands, agricultural areas with scattered groves and trees, and roadside avenues with old large trees. [2]
The dusky eagle-owl is not deterred by daylight though is largely active at night emerging from its roost shortly before sunset. The species has been seen hunting during the day during cloudy weather. [2]
The nesting season is from November to April, with most of the breeding observed during December and January. [2] The dusky eagle-owls use stick nests of other large birds on trees such as Ficus, Mitragyna and Dalbergia. [2] In Haryana, breeding owl pairs preferentially reused nests of woolly-necked Storks Ciconia episcopus. [4] Very few dusky eagle-owl pairs used nests made by other bird species, which included red-naped ibis Pseudibis papillosa and Indian spotted eagle Clanga hastata. Storks showed a preference for native Dalbergia sissoo and Ficus religiosa trees along with the exotic Eucalyptus trees. The owls exercised a second level of preference of tree species that had stork nests, and preferentially reused nests on Eucalyptus sp. Most dusky eagle-owls reused stork nests in areas that had high densities of stork nests suggesting that the owls were tracking the breeding progress of woolly-necked storks. [4] The study in Haryana underscored the importance of multifunctional agriculture – agroforestry amid cereal crops – to maintain healthy breeding populations of dusky eagle-owls. [4]
The dusky eagle owl species is one of the least studied owls in the world, and the majority of information on its biology is from anecdotal observations. [2]
The American horned owls and the Old World eagle-owls make up the genus Bubo, at least as traditionally described. The genus name Bubo is Latin for owl.
The Eurasian eagle-owl is a species of eagle-owl, a type of bird that resides in much of Eurasia. It is also called the Uhu and it is often just called the eagle-owl in Europe and Asia.
The white stork is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average 100–115 cm (39–45 in) from beak tip to end of tail, with a 155–215 cm (61–85 in) wingspan. The two subspecies, which differ slightly in size, breed in Europe, northwestern Africa, southwestern Asia and southern Africa. The white stork is a long-distance migrant, wintering in Africa from tropical Sub-Saharan Africa to as far south as South Africa, or on the Indian subcontinent. When migrating between Europe and Africa, it avoids crossing the Mediterranean Sea and detours via the Levant in the east or the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, because the air thermals on which it depends for soaring do not form over water.
The Asian woolly-necked stork or Asian woollyneck is a species of large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds singly, or in small loose colonies. It is distributed in a wide variety of habitats including marshes in forests, agricultural areas, and freshwater wetlands across Asia.
The brown fish owl is a fish owl species in the family known as typical owls, Strigidae. It is native from Turkey to South and Southeast Asia. Due its wide distribution it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. It inhabits forests and wooded wetlands. Of the four living species of fish owl, it is the most widely distributed, most common and best-studied. It occupies a range of over 7,000 km (4,300 mi).
Blakiston's fish owl, the largest living species of owl, is a fish owl, a sub-group of eagle-owls that specialize in hunting in riparian areas. It is native to China, Japan, and the Russian Far East. This species is a part of the family known as typical owls (Strigidae), which contains most species of owl. Blakiston's fish owl and three other piscivorous owls are placed with some eagle-owls in the genus Ketupa. Its habitat is riparian forest with large, old trees for nest sites near lakes, rivers, springs, and shoals that do not freeze in winter. Henry Seebohm named this bird after the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen in Hakodate on Hokkaidō, Japan in 1883.
The spot-bellied eagle-owl, also known as the forest eagle-owl is a large bird of prey with a formidable appearance. It is a forest-inhabiting species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. This species is considered part of a superspecies with the barred eagle-owl, which looks quite similar but is allopatric in distribution.
The Philippine eagle-owl is a vulnerable species of owl belonging to the family Strigidae. It is endemic to the Philippines, where it is found in lowland forests on the islands of Catanduanes, Samar, Bohol, Mindanao, Luzon, Leyte and possibly Sibuyan. The Philippine eagle-owl feeds on rodents and amphibians. Due to its reliance on living in large lowland forests, forest conservation is important in order to maintain populations of the Philippine eagle-owl, which is becoming increasingly vulnerable to going extinct. The Philippine eagle-owl was previously listed as endangered, but due to destruction of lowland habitat and possible hunting, the eagle-owl has since been adjusted to the vulnerability of extinction.
Storm's stork is a medium-sized stork species that occurs primarily in lowland tropical forests of Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand. It is considered to be the rarest of all storks, and is estimated to number less than 500 wild individuals throughout its geographic range. The population has long been in decline and the primary cause is widely considered to be deforestation of its native habitat.
Cecil Boden Kloss was an English zoologist. He was an expert on the mammals and birds of Southeast Asia. The Rubiaceae genus Klossia was named after him.
The Cape eagle-owl is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is one of several large species of the eagle-owl genus Bubo.
The akun eagle-owl is a species of owl in the family Strigidae and is native to the African tropical rainforest.
Fraser's eagle-owl is a species of African owl in the family Strigidae. It is named after the British zoologist Louis Fraser.
The barred eagle-owl, also called the Malay eagle-owl, is a species of eagle owl in the family Strigidae. It is a member of the large genus Ketupa, which is found on most of the world's continents. This relatively little-known species is found from the southern Malay Peninsula down a string of several of the larger southeast Asian islands to as far as Borneo. It forms a superspecies with the physically similar but larger spot-bellied eagle-owl, although the two species appear to be allopatric in distribution.
Ketupa is a genus of owls in the family Strigidae. The genus formerly contained just three species, the fish owls but based on the results from a genetic study published in 2020, the generic boundaries were altered. The genus now contains twelve species, nine of which were formerly placed in the genus Bubo.
The buffy fish owl, also known as the Malay fish owl, is a fish owl in the family Strigidae. It is native to Southeast Asia and lives foremost in tropical forests and wetlands. Due to its wide distribution and assumed stable population, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2004.
The greyish eagle-owl or vermiculated eagle-owl is a rather large owl of the northern part of sub-Saharan Africa. It was previously regarded as the northern subspecies of the spotted eagle-owl.
The African woolly-necked stork or African woollyneck is a species of large wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It breeds singly, or in small loose colonies. It is distributed in a wide variety of habitats including marshes in forests, agricultural areas, and freshwater wetlands across Africa.