{"id":16068,"date":"2021-12-13T10:49:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-13T10:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/?p=16068"},"modified":"2021-12-13T10:49:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T10:49:49","slug":"indian-scops-owl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/indian-scops-owl\/","title":{"rendered":"Encounter with the Indian Scops Owl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On an autumn evening strolling around our quarters, looking for caterpillars, I came across two dark<br \/>round-ish figures in the thickets of the tall bamboos next to our rooms. The figures looked almost<br \/>like an owlet but I wasn\u2019t sure. I ran back to my room to grab my binoculars and investigate it<br \/>further. Through the binoculars I saw that the bird\u2019s back was facing me, as I waited longer one of<br \/>them turned around, which is when I saw it\u2019s pointed ears, dark beady eyes and with markings like a<br \/>collar. It was an Indian Scops Owl. I was extremely thrilled as I had not seen this owl in such close<br \/>proximity. The pair was roosting here and even though this was one of our daily routes, none of us<br \/>had laid eyes on them before. In that excitement I went to call the other naturalists and we took<br \/>some images of this bird for our records. This owl roosts through the day and is mainly seen active at<br \/>night.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>The Indian scops owl (Otus bakkamoena) is a small nocturnal bird and is one of the largest<br \/>scops owls, with a wingspan around 60 cm. There are grey and rufous morphs. The upper parts are<br \/>grey or reddish brown with scattered faint yellow-ish brown spotting. The underparts are grey or<br \/>buff with scattered fine darker vertical streaking. The facial disc is whitish or pale buff. The eyes are<br \/>large with orange or brown colour. There is a dark neck band. The bill is grey and there are bristles<br \/>around the base of the bill. Their call is a soft single note &#8220;whuk&#8221; sound.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/image-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>These species inhabit submontane forests, temperate forests, foothill forests, subtropical or tropical<br \/>mangrove forests, dense evergreen primary and secondary forests and hillside forests. They also<br \/>inhabit thick plantations near towns and cultivated areas and gardens, orchards and parks with<br \/>dense shade giving trees. The diet of these owl species is primarily large insects like beetles,<br \/>grasshoppers, cicadas and moths. The also feed on small rodents, small birds, lizards and frogs.<br \/>Now every time I walk along this path in day, I get to see this pair of owls, perched on different spots<br \/>in the same clump of bamboos<\/p>\n\n\n<p><strong>Ratik Sharma , Naturalist Singinawa Jungle Lodge<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On an autumn evening strolling around our quarters, looking for caterpillars, I came across two darkround-ish figures in the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds-of-kanha"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/singinawajunglelodge.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}