Owl

The Indian Owl or Indian Eagle-Owl or Rock Eagle-owl or Bengal Eagle-owl with the scientific name as Bubo bengalensis is a large horned owl found in India. They were earlier considered as a subspecies of the Eurasian Eagle-Owl.

They are generally large owls which have tufts over their head. The quick classification of this species is given below,

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Class	Aves
Order	Strigiformes
Family	Strigidae
Genus	Bubo
Species	Bubo bengalensis

Physical Characteristics:

This species is a large owl which is splashed with brown and grey over its body. Dark and light morphs of this bird are noticed. The facial disc is colored with dull brownish-yellow to buffy, with a prominent blackish rim. Eyebrows are whitish at the center of the face. They have a large ear and orange colored eyes. One could find a blackish line at the center of each eye and it continues upto a dark ear tufts. Forehead has small blackish flecks and is buffy brown in color. They have a greenish to black colored bill. Chin and throat are whitish. This bird occurs with dark and light morphs.

The upper parts of the body are tawny brown and crossed with blackish brown. A whitish bar could be seen across the shoulder. The feathers of wing and tail are tawny-buff with blackish brown. The lower parts of the body are fulvous.

The upper breast has dark streaks while the remaining parts have fine streaks and dull corss bars. Legs and toes have fulvous feathers. The claws look dusky black. The inner claws look longest and the last joint of the toe is unfeathered.

Their body length ranges from 50 to 56 cm. The wing length in male varies from 364 to 390 mm (14.3-15.4") while in female it varies from 375 to 425mm (14.8-16.7"). They weigh about 1.1 to 2 kg (38.8 oz).

Behaviour:

The deep, resonant and double noted hoot sounds are delivered by the male species.The female produces the same sound but at a slightly higher pitch. They are generally nocturnal species. They fly slowly with deliberate wing beats. They typically fly close to ground. While fighting with young, the adults often implement various tactics such as feigning wing injury to hurt the young ones purposely.

Food Habits:

This owl species mainly feed on rodents like rats, mices, other than this they also eat birds, reptiles, crabs, frogs and large inverterbrates.They usually tear up the prey while feeding on rodents rather than swallowing as a whole. The various birds they feed on are partridges, doves, the shikra, Indian Roller, peafowl and the Spotted Owlet.They feed on 61g of prey for a day. They go for preying birds mainly during the winter.

These species are one of the birds which are distributed throughout the Indian subcontinent.It is a subspecies of Eurasian Eagle owl. The other subspecies related to Bengal eagle-owl is as below,

1. Bubo bubo bubo
2. Bubo bubo hispanus
3. Bubo bubo ruthenus
4. Bubo bubo interpositus
5. Bubo bubo sibericus
6. Bubo bubo yenisseensis
7. Bubo bubo jakutensis
8. Bubo bubo ussuriensis
9. Bubo bubo turcomanus
10. Bubo bubo omissus
11. Bubo bubo nikolskii
12. Bubo bubo hemachalana
13. Bubo bubo kiautschensis
14. Bubo bubo swinhoei

Habitat:

These species prefer being distributed in hilly and rocky scrub forest, wooded scrubs, ravines, steep banks of river and streams, humid evergreen forest, arid areas and rocky semi-desert mango orchards. They are seen in the region which are at the elevation lesser than 5000 feet. They could be spotted under the shelter of bushy or rocky projection. Indian Eagle-Owl is found in the range from mainland of the Indian subcontinent to south of the Himalayas. It is seen in every part of India.They are spotted in various places like India, Kashmir, Nepal, west Himalayas, Assam and Burma.

Mating and Nesting:

The breeding season for these owl species happens during the month of February to April and at times at the month of October to May. The males raise long calls ad dusk during the breeding season. They make a call with peak intensity during the month of February. The young birds make hisses, clicks and open their wings to present them larger. The mating adult's fly in a zig zag manner near their nest and guards their nest from predators.

The nesting season happens from November to April. The nest is typically a shallow scrape built on bare ground. Probably they could be on river banks, covered rock ledges or in cliffs that is located in ravines.

Around two to four eggs are laid. The eggs are broad roundish oval shaped; creamy white with a smooth texture with the size of about 53.6 x 43.8mm (2.1 x 1.7").The nest site is reused every year. The female incubates the egg continuously for 35 days. The eggs hatch after 35 days and the chicks stay with their parents for nearly six months.

The new born chick has a white fluff which gradually changes to speckled feathers during the prejuvenile moult at the second week from its birth. After a month from their birth they go through a prebasic moult and a brownish juvenile plumage is developed on the upperparts more likely as in adults but the underside is downy.

Threats and conservation:

International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) has categorized Bengal Owl as 'Least concern' since they appear in large number in various parts of the world. The population has not been qauntified and the species is reported to be uncommon throughout the world.

The population is stable and hence it is believed that the status will never approach vulnerable category when analysed based on various range size criterion like Extent of Occurrence less than 20,000 sq.km combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, population size, habitat extent/quality, and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation.

Relation with humans:

There are various superstitious beliefs regarding owl among people. Some people believe that the owls are wise while others believe that they are the messengers of death or an evil indicator. The other belief among the humans is that if the bird is made to starve for few days and beaten, it would speak more like a human and would predict the future of the tormentor and brings them wealth. Some people kill the bird just to get the lucky bone from them. To save these birds from these superstitions, the Indian law has strictly passed the rule not to torment or kill the bird.

•Usually the Female birds are one third larger than male birds.
•No owls build their own nest, they search for a natural covered place nearer to river bank,covered rock ledge or in a cliff that is located in ravine.
•An owl cannot move its eyes; instead they rotate their heads almost three quarters around in each direction without rotating their body.
• Their nests are crudely built and may be in trees, underground burrows, or in barns and caves.
•The smallest owl is the Elf Owl, Micrathene whitneyi, at as little as 31 g (1.1 oz) in weight and 13.5 cm (5.3 inches) in height.
•Owls have large forward facing eyes and ears, and a beak like a hawk.
•Owls are carnivorous i.e. meat-eaters,they eat small mammals, insects and birds.
•Short eared owls and Snowy owls are daytime hunters while others sleep during day and are active at night.
•Owls that hunt in night have very good hearing power so they catch their prey in the darkness of night.
•They fly quietly so that they can listen hard for the tiny sounds made by prey animals, and so that they do not scare them away by making a noise.
•Owls have very soft feathers that help them to fly without making any noise and also keep them warm but can get owls into trouble because they are not very waterproof.