Greyish eagle-owl

Greyish eagle-owl
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Strigiformes
Family: Strigidae
Genus: Bubo
Species: B. cinerascens
Binomial name
Bubo cinerascens
Guérin-Méneville, 1843

The greyish eagle-owl or vermiculated eagle-owl (Bubo cinerascens) is a rather large owl of Africa.

It is closely related to the spotted eagle-owl, of which is it sometimes considered the northern subspecies, B. africanus cinerascens.[1][2]

It is found in the northern part of sub-Saharan Africa from Mauretania and Liberia east to Sudan and Somalia.[2] Its habitats include dry rocky deserts and open savannah, as well as lowland forests in Somalia.[3]

This species is about 43 centimetres (17 in) long and weighs about 500 grams (1.1 lb).[3] Like the spotted eagle-owl, the greyish eagle-owl has mottled dark brown, buff, and white upperparts and finely barred (vermiculated) underparts giving a greyish-brown appearance. It differs from the spotted eagle-owl in having dark brown (not yellow) eyes and a brownish facial disk marked with a heavy brown circle around each eye.[1] It also has morphological differences, such as being lighter though about the same length and having shorter tarsi. In the area of overlap, the spotted eagle-owl and the present species are not known to interbreed.[3]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Zimmerman, Dale A.; Turner, Donald A.; Pearson, David J. (1999), Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania, Princeton University Press, pp. 128–9, 374, ISBN 978-0-691-01022-9
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lepage, Denis (2003–2007), Avibase - the world bird database, retrieved Sep 22, 2007
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Weick, Friedhelm (2006), Owls (Strigiformes): Annotated and Illustrated Checklist, Springer, pp. 111–113, ISBN 978-3-540-35234-1

External links