Scops owl

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Scops owls
Eurasian scops owls, Otus scops
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Otus
Pennant, 1769
Type species
Otus bakkamoena
Pennant, 1769
Synonyms

Scops

preoccupied
)
Scopus
preoccupied
)

Scops owls are

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. Some are polymorphic
, occurring in a greyish- and a reddish-brown morph. They are small and agile, with both sexes being compact in size and shape. Female scops owls are usually larger than males.

For most of the 20th century, this genus included the

DNA sequence
data.

Taxonomy

A well-camouflaged African scops owl (Otus senegalensis)

The genus Otus was introduced in 1769 by the Welsh naturalist

junior synonym[6] and is derived from the Greek σκώψ (skōps) meaning small kind of owl, Otus scops.[7]

By the mid-19th century, it was becoming clear that Otus encompassed more than one genus. First, in 1848, the screech owls were split off as Megascops. The

monotypic genus Macabra. Gymnasio was established in the same year for the Puerto Rican owl, and the bare-legged owl (or "Cuban screech owl") was separated in Gymnoglaux the following year; the latter genus was sometimes merged with Gymnasio by subsequent authors. The Palau scops owl, described only in 1872 and little-known to this day, was eventually separated in Pyrroglaux by Yoshimaro Yamashina in 1938.[citation needed
]

In the early 20th century, the

mtDNA cytochrome b across a wide range of owls found that even the treatment as subgenera was probably unsustainable and suggested that most of the genera proposed around 1850 should be accepted.[9] Though there was some debate about the reliability of these findings at first,[10] they have been confirmed by subsequent studies. In 2003, the AOU formally re-accepted the genus Megascops again.[11]

Species

The genus Otus contains 59 species (including 3 extinct species):[12]

Two extinct species are sometimes placed in the genus:

An apparent Otus owl was heard calling at about 1,000 meters

ASL south of the summit of Camiguin in the Philippines on May 14, 1994. No scops owls had previously known from this island, and given that new species of Otus are occasionally discovered, it may have been an undescribed taxon.[13][14]

In July 2016, an unknown Otus species was photographed on

Otus bikegila, it was formally described in 2022.[16]

Formerly placed here

As noted above, the

extinct Otus (or "Scops"), these are now placed in entirely different genera:[17]

  • "Otus" henrici was a barn owl of the genus Selenornis
  • "Otus" providentiae was a
    paleosubspecies
  • "Otus" wintershofensis may be close to extant genus Ninox and some material assigned to it belongs into Intutula
  • "Scops" commersoni is a
    subfossil
    material of this species had been erroneously assigned to tuftless owls.

Evolution

The

osteologically very similar, as is to be expected from a group that has apparently conserved its ecomorphology since before its evolutionary radiation. As almost all scops and screech owls today, their common ancestor was in all probability already a small owl, with ear tufts and at least the upper tarsus
("leg") feathered.

However that may be, the hypothesis that the group evolved from Old World stock

sequence data.[9][20]

Ecology and behaviour

A fledgling Eurasian scops owl, Otus scops
Call of oriental scops owl (Otus sunia)
Recorded in
Parambikulam (India
)
Problems playing this file? See media help.

While late 19th-century

song
, which is a short sequence of varying calls given by the males when they try to attract females to their nests, or between members of a pair. There are a few other differences such as the screech owls almost never being brown below which is common in scops owls, but the difference in vocalizations is most striking.

Scops owls hunt from perches in semi-open landscapes. They prefer areas which contain old trees with hollows; these are home to their prey which includes

amphibians and aquatic invertebrates.[21]
Scops owls have a good sense of hearing which helps them locate their prey in any habitat. They also possess well-developed raptorial claws and a curved bill, both of which are used for tearing their prey into pieces small enough to swallow easily.

Scops owls are primarily solitary birds. Most species lay and incubate their eggs in a cavity nest that was originally made by another animal. During the incubation period, the male will feed the female. These birds are

altricial
to semialtricial.

As opposed to screech owls, scops owls have only a single type of call. This consists of a series of whistles or high-pitched hoots, given with a frequency of 4 calls per second or less, or of a single, drawn-out whistle. Calls differ widely between species in type and pitch, and in the field are often the first indication of these birds' presence, as well as the most reliable means to distinguish between species. Some, like the recently described Serendib scops owl (Otus thilohoffmanni), were discovered because their vocalizations were unfamiliar to experts in birdcalls.[22]

See also

References

  1. ^ Pennant, Thomas (1769). "Otus bakkamoena". Indian Zoology. London. p. 3.
  2. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4
    .
  3. Perseus Project
    .
  4. Perseus Project
    .
  5. ^ οὖς in Liddell and Scott.
  6. ^ Savigny, M.J.C. (1809). "Scops Ephialtes. Le petit duc". Description de l'Égypte, ou recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Égypte. Vol. I. Paris: L'Imprimerie Impériale. p. 107.
  7. ^ σκώψ in Liddell and Scott.
  8. ^ Marshall, J. T.; King, B. (1988). "Genus Otus". In Amadon, D.; Bull, J. (eds.). Hawks and owls of the world: A distributional and taxonomic list. Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Vol. 3. pp. 296–357.
  9. ^
    S2CID 28746107
    .
  10. ^ South American Classification Committee (SACC) (2003). "Proposal (#58): Elevate subgenus Megascops (New World Otus) to full generic status". Archived from the original on 2008-05-16.
  11. doi:10.1642/0004-8038(2003)120[0923:fsttao]2.0.co;2
    .
  12. Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2021). "Owls"
    . IOC World Bird List Version 11.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
  13. S2CID 86819864
    .
  14. S2CID 129026301
    .
  15. ^ "An unknown bird of the island of Príncipe has been photographed" (in French). Ornithomedia. 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  16. hdl:10451/55748
    .
  17. ^ a b Mlíkovský, J. (2002). Cenozoic Birds of the World, Part 1: Europe. Prague: Ninox Press.
  18. JSTOR 1365319
    .
  19. ^ Johnson, D. (2003). "Owls in the Fossil Record". The owl pages.
  20. ISBN 0-300-07920-6
    .
  21. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.2004.00388.x
    .
  22. ^ Deepal H. Warakagoda; Pamela C. Rasmusse (2004). "A new species of scops-owl from Sri Lanka" (PDF). Bull. B.0.C. (Full text). 124 (2). Retrieved November 3, 2022.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Otus.
Wikispecies has information related to Otus.
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