| Northern White-faced Owl | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Strigiformes |
| Family: | Strigidae |
| Genus: | Ptilopsis |
| Species: | P. leucotis |
| Binomial name | |
| Ptilopsis leucotis (Temminck, 1820) |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Otus leucotis |
|
The Northern White-faced Owl (Ptilopsis leucotis) is a species of owl in the Strigidae family. The Southern White-faced Owl (P. granti) was formerly included in this species and the two were known as the White-faced Scops-Owl.
It is found in a band across Africa between the Sahara and the Equator. It occurs in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.
The owl was the subject of a Japanese television show. As shown, the owl has a rather notable defense mechanism. When faced with another owl slightly larger than it, the bird flares its wings to appear larger. When faced with something much larger than itself, it pulls its feathers inwards and elongates its body to appear as a tree branch.[1]