screech owl

It has been suggested that some sections of this article be split into a new article entitled Megascops. (Discuss)

Scops owls
Western Screech Owl Otus kennicottii
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Strigiformes Family: Strigidae Genus: Otus Pennant, 1769
Species
Around 65, see text.
Synonyms
Scops Savigny, 1809 (non Moehring, 1758, Brünnich, 1772) - preoccupied Scopus Oken 1817 (non Brisson, 1760) - preoccupied

Scops owls belong to the genus Otus of owls. 65 living species are known, with frequent discoveries of other new species.

Size and appearance

Female Scops owls are usually larger than the males of their species, with owls of both genders being compact in size and shape. The Flammulated Owl Otus flameolus and the Eastern Screech Owl Otus asio are two of the smallest species of owls in North America (BONA, 369). All of the birds in this genus are small and agile. Scops owls are generally gray, brown, and sometimes red in color, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees.

Food and foraging habits

Scops owls hunt from perches in semi-open landscapes. They prefer areas which contain old trees with hollows; these are home to their prey which includes insects, reptiles, small mammals such as bats and mice and other small birds. The owls will also eat earthworms, amphibians and aquatic invertegrates (Marchesi and Seergio, 1). Scops owls have a good sense of hearing which helps them locate their prey in any habitat. They also posess well-developed raptorial claws and a curved bill, both of which are used for ripping flesh (FDC). Screech owls usually carry their prey back to their nests, presumably to guard against the chance of losing their meal to a larger raptor.

Social structure and mating habits

Scops owls are primarily solitary birds. During the late-winter breeding season, however, male screech owls will make nests to try to attract females. The female selects based on the quality of the cavity and the food located inside. Most owls in the "Otus genus lay and incubate their eggs in a cavity nest which was previously made by another animal. The birds are monogamous, with biparental care. During the incubation period, the male will feed the female (FDC).

This genus only fledges one young per year. The young of most of the birds in this genus are altricial to semialtricial (TBH, 296-298).

Systematics

It is often believed that all Scops owls evolved from tropical North American stock. Screech owl fossils from the Late Pliocene of Kansas - which are almost identical to Eastern and Western Screech Owls - indicate a long-standing presence of these birds in the Americas. There are no known fossils which can be attributed to ancient members of this genus, which probably evolved at some time during the Miocene (like most other genera of typical owls). The North American fossils do not definitively prove a North American origin.

In addition, the genus Otus also has a different placement of the procoracoid (less of an anterior incline) and coracoid bones compared to other "New World owls" (Ford, 472). An alternative view is that the Scops owls evolved from Asian stock (Johnson,1); this is tentatively supported by cytochrome b sequence data (Heidrich et al. 1995).

The 2003 revision to the AOU checklist places most of the New World members of this genus in Megascops Kaup, 1848. See ITIS entry. However, the Flammulated Owl is excluded [1].

• White-fronted Scops Owl, Otus sagittatus
• Andaman Scops Owl, Otus balli
• Reddish Scops Owl, Otus rufescens
  • Sulu Reddish Scops Owl, Otus rufescens burbidgei - doubtfully distinct, extinct (mid-20th century)
• Sandy Scops Owl, Otus icterorhynchus
• Sokoke Scops Owl, Otus ireneae
• Flores Scops Owl, Otus alfredi
• Mountain Scops Owl, Otus spilocephalus
• Rajah Scops Owl, Otus brookii
• Javan Scops Owl, Otus angelinae
• Mentawai Scops Owl, Otus mentawi
• Collared Scops Owl, Otus bakkamoena
• Indian Scops Owl, Otus lettia - formerly included in O. bakkamoena
• Sunda Scops Owl, Otus lempiji
• Japanese Scops Owl, Otus semitorques
• Wallace's Scops Owl, Otus silvicola
• Palawan Scops Owl, Otus fuliginosus
• Philippine Scops Owl, Otus megalotis
• Mindanao Scops Owl, Otus mirus
• Luzon Scops Owl, Otus longicornis
• Mindoro Scops Owl, Otus mindorensis
• Pallid Scops Owl, Otus brucei
• African Scops Owl, Otus senegalensis
• European Scops Owl, Otus scops
• Oriental Scops Owl, Otus sunia
• Flammulated Owl, Otus flammeolus
• Moluccan Scops Owl, Otus magicus
• Mantanani Scops Owl, Otus mantananensis
• Ryūkyū Scops Owl, Otus elegans
• Sulawesi Scops Owl, Otus manadensis
• Sangihe Scops Owl, Otus collari
• Biak Scops Owl, Otus beccarii
• Seychelles Scops Owl, Otus insularis
• Simeulue Scops Owl, Otus umbra
• Enggano Scops Owl, Otus enganensis
• Nicobar Scops Owl, Otus alius
• Pemba Scops Owl, Otus pembaensis
• Comoro Scops Owl, Otus pauliani
• Siau Scops Owl, Otus siaoensis
• Anjouan Scops Owl, Otus capnodes
• Moheli Scops Owl, Otus moheliensis
• Mayotte Scops Owl, Otus mayottensis
• Malagasy Scops Owl, Otus rutilus
• Serendib Scops Owl, Otus thilohoffmanni
• Torotoroka Scops Owl, Otus madagascariensis
• Sao Tome Scops Owl, Otus hartlaubi
• Western Screech Owl, Otus kennicottii
• Balsas Screech Owl, Otus seductus
• Pacific Screech Owl, Otus cooperi
• Whiskered Screech Owl, Otus trichopsis
• Eastern Screech Owl, Otus asio
• Tropical Screech Owl, Otus choliba
• Koepcke's Screech Owl, Otus koepckeae
• West Peruvian Screech Owl, Otus roboratus
• Bare-shanked Screech Owl, Otus clarkii
• Bearded Screech Owl, Otus barbarus
• Rufescent Screech Owl, Otus ingens
• Colombian Screech Owl, Otus colombianus
• Cinnamon Screech Owl, Otus petersoni
• Cloud-forest Screech Owl, Otus marshalli
• Tawny-bellied Screech Owl, Otus watsonii
• Guatemalan Screech Owl, Otus guatemalae
• Vermiculated Screech Owl, Otus vermiculatus
• Hoy's Screech Owl, Otus hoyi
• Variable Screech Owl, Otus atricapillus
• Long-tufted Screech Owl, Otus sanctaecatarinae
• Puerto Rican Screech Owl, Otus nudipes
  • Virgin Islands Screech Owl, Otus nudipes newtoni - extinct (1860s)
• White-throated Screech Owl, Otus albogularis

No fossil "Otus" are presently known, apart from the fossils mentioned above, which are very close to (and may actually belong to) still-living species. Several species of extinct owls have been placed in the present genus in error:

• The supposed fossil Late Eocene/Early Oligocene scops owl "Otus" henrici has been recognized as a member of the fossil barn-owl genus Selenornis;
• The Early or Middle Miocene "Otus" wintershofensisis closer to Ninox. "Otus" providentiae is now recognized as a burrowing owl, probably a paleosubspecies;
• "Scops" (= Otus) commersoni is a junior synonym of the Mauritius Owl, referring to pictures and descriptions which mention ear tufts; the fossil material of this species had been erroneously assigned to tuftless owls;

References

• Alsop, Fred J. (2001). Birds of North America (BONA), Eastern region. Smithsonian Handbooks. 

• Dewey, Tanya, and Stephen McDonald (2006). Otus asio. Animal Diversity Web.

• Marchesi, Luigi, and Fabrizio Sergio, 2005. Distribution, density, diet and productivity of the Scops Owl Otus scops in the Italian Alps.

• Ehrlich, Paul R., David S. Dobkin, and Darryle Wheye, 1988. The Birder's Handbook (TBH). A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds.

• Fifth Day Creations (FDC), 2000. Birding ID Library: Eastern Screech Owls. [2]

• Ford, Norman L., 1966. Fossil Owls From the Rexroad Fauna of the Upper Pliocene in Kansas. The Condor, 68: 472-475.

• Heidrich, P., König, C. and M. Wink: Molecular phylogeny of the South American Otus atricapillus complex (Aves Strigidae) inferred from nucleotide sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene. Z. Naturforsch. 50c, 294-302, 1995

• Johnson, David, 2003. Owls in the Fossil Record. The owl pages. [3]

External links

• http://www.peregrinefund.org/Explore_Raptors/owls/escreech.html
• http://www.owling.com/Flammulated.htm
• http://www.owling.com/Eastern_Screech.htm
• http://www.owling.com/Bearded_Screech.htm

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