African wood owl

African wood owl
Photograph by Bob Lewis, Botswana
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Strigiformes
Family:	Strigidae
Genus:	Strix
Species:	S. woodfordii
Binomial name
Strix woodfordii (Smith, 1834)
Synonyms
Ciccaba woodfordii

The African wood owl (Strix woodfordii) is a medium-sized owl with dark eyes and no ear tufts. It is 30 to 36 cm long and weighs from 240 to 350 grams. It lives in Africa from Senegambia to Sudan and south to Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and on the east coast to South Africa. It lives mainly in forest and woodland though it sometimes inhabits plantations. It eats mostly insects but will also eat reptiles, small mammals, and other birds. It breeds from July to October and lays 1 to 3 eggs in a hollow in a tree. It will then incubate the eggs for about 31 days. Five weeks after the eggs hatch, the young will leave the nest and can fly 2 weeks later. The young will remain with the parents for about four months and will sometimes stay until the next breeding season. Its call is a loud series of fast hoots. It is not threatened and is common in almost all of its range.

• 

  A pair

References

• "African Wood Owl". World Owl Trust. February 2005. Archived from the original on 2 November 2007. Retrieved 2007-11-18. 

External links

• (African) Wood Owl - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.