Brown boobook

Species of owl

Brown boobook

N. s. burmanica at Phuket, Thailand, and call from South Bengal, India

Conservation status

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]

CITES Appendix II (CITES)[1]

Scientific classification
Domain:  | Eukaryota
Kingdom:  | Animalia
Phylum:  | Chordata
Class:  | Aves
Order:  | Strigiformes
Family:  | Strigidae
Genus:  | Ninox
Species:  |

N. scutulata

Binomial name
Ninox scutulata

(Raffles, 1822)

The brown boobook (Ninox scutulata), also known as the brown hawk-owl, is an owl which is a resident breeder in south Asia from India, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Nepal east to western Indonesia and south China.

This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, Strigidae, which contains most species of owl. The other grouping is the barn owls, Tytonidae.

## Taxonomy

[edit]

The brown boobook was formally described in 1822 by Stamford Raffles from a specimen collected in Sumatra under the binomial name Strix scutulata.[2] The specific epithet is from Latin scutulatus  meaning "diamond-shaped".[3] The brown boobook is now placed with the other boobooks in the genus Ninox that was introduced by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1837.[4][5]

Nine subspecies are recognised:[5]

* N. s. lugubris (Tickell, 1833) — north, northeast, central India and Nepal
* N. s. burmanica Hume, 1876 — northeast India to south China, Indochina and Thailand
* N. s. hirsuta (Temminck, 1824) — south India and Sri Lanka
* N. s. isolata Baker, ECS, 1926 — Car Nicobar
* N. s. rexpimenti Abdulali, 1979 — Great Nicobar Island
* N. s. scutulata (Raffles, 1822) — Malay Peninsula, Riau Archipelago, Sumatra and Bangka Island
* N. s. javanensis Stresemann, 1928 — west Java
* N. s. borneensis (Bonaparte, 1850) — Borneo and north Natuna Islands
* N. s. palawanensis Ripley & Rabor, 1962 — Palawan (west Philippines)

## Description

[edit]

The brown boobook is a medium-sized owl with a length of 32 cm (13 in). It has a hawk-like shape due to its long tail and lack of a distinct facial disk. The upperparts are dark brown, with a barred tail. The underparts are whitish with reddish-brown streaking, although the subspecies found in the Andaman Islands has dark brown underparts. The eyes are large and yellow. Sexes are similar.[6]

This species is very nocturnal but it can often be located by the small birds that mob it while it is roosting in a tree. It feeds mainly on large insects, frogs, lizards, small birds, and mice. The call is a repeated low soft, musical oo-uk ...ooo-uk... which may be heard at dusk and dawn. This owl is quite common in towns and cities like Colombo, Sri Lanka, as well as suburban areas close to buildings.

## Distribution and habitat

[edit]

The brown boobook is a resident breeder in most of tropical south Asia from the Middle East to south China. Its habitat is well-wooded country and forest. It lays three to five eggs in a tree hole.

There are two records of the brown boobook in the western hemisphere: an individual photographed on St. Paul Island, Alaska, on August 27, 2007,[7] and a dead owl found on Kiska Island in 2008.[8]

## Gallery

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* Eggs, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

* Brown boobook at Samsing in Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India.

* Brown boobook couple, Thattekad Bird Sanctuary, Kerala, India

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b BirdLife International (2021). "Ninox scutulata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2021: e.T22725643A200685229. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
2. ^ Raffles, Thomas Stamford (1822). "Second part of the descriptive catalogue of a zoological collection made in the Island of Sumatra and its vicinity". Transactions of the Linnean Society of London. 13: 277-340 [280].
3. ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 352\. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
4. ^ Hodgson, Brian Houghton (1837). "Indication of a new genus belonging to the Strigine family, with description of the new species and type". Madras Journal of Literature and Science. 5: 23–25.
5. ^ a b Gill, Frank; Donsker, David; Rasmussen, Pamela, eds. (January 2021). "Owls". IOC World Bird List Version 11.1. International Ornithologists' Union. Retrieved 20 May 2021.
6. ^ Kennedy, Robert (2000). A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines. Oxford: OUP Oxford. p. 180\. ISBN 9780198546689. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
7. ^ https://www.owling.com/brown-hawk-owl/ Brown Hawk Owl: A Reference for North and Central American Owls
8. ^ Bond, Alexander & Jones, I.L. (2010). A brown hawk-owl (Ninox scutulata) from Kiska Island, Aleutian Islands, Alaska. 41. 107-110.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Grimmett, Richard; Carol Inskipp; Tim Inskipp (1999). Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-04910-6.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ninox scutulata.

* Photos, audio and video of brown hawk-owl from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library

Authority control databases: National |

* Japan

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Taxon identifiers

Ninox scutulata|

* Wikidata: Q856009
* Wikispecies: Ninox scutulata
* ABA: brhaow
* ADW: Ninox_scutulata
* Avibase: A5AC4024C0C46CB7
* BirdLife: 22725643
* BOLD: 96336
* BOW: brnhao1
* CoL: 47FKP
* CMS: ninox-scutulata
* eBird: brnhao1
* EPPO: NINOSC
* EURING: 7560
* GBIF: 2497840
* iNaturalist: 204550
* IRMNG: 10457234
* ITIS: 555481
* IUCN: 22725643
* NCBI: 126857
* Observation.org: 72250
* Open Tree of Life: 546091
* Species+: 9044
* Xeno-canto: Ninox-scutulata

Strix scutulata|

* Wikidata: Q109563498
* CoL: 532K8
* GBIF: 8871196
* ITIS: 1063535