this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2024
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Mottled Wood Owl (Edit: new pics added - the other birds mentioned in the post) (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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This is an amazing owl I came across last night. Such wonderful coloration and texture to its appearance. It reminds me of a lightly charred log from a campfire. Nice high resolution photos too, so you can really check out all the details.

Photos and descriptions by Hari K Patibanda

Mottled Wood Owl Sighting by chance

A large owl around 50 cms tall and sighted in thick canopy cover. The Owl is exclusive to India and due to the Mottled body colors, is hard to spot without a call. It is known as a strong predator and is a true Nocturnal Owl unlike several others which are mostly twilight / crepuscular.

It was quite by chance that we came across the bird perched on a lovely tree. The day was very cloudy and that maybe the reason why the Owl was seen so late!

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

A Mottled Wood Owl under the canopy

A pretty large owl found among thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But the area we visited had a lot of thick canopy and was quite dark, so we could see the Owl still in the open much to our surprise.

There were several Treepies, Drongoes and Bulbuls that were making noise and trying to scare the Owl, but the Owl was cool and bore the harassment occasionally flying out to other perches in the canopy. Shot this during one such moment.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

White Bellied Drongo

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Bulbul

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Treepie

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Spangled Drongo

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

This poor face! 😆🥰

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

A Shikra mobbing a Mottled Wood Owl

Another day, another incident around the owl. The Mottled Wood Owl is a large owl found around thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But we got lucky this time that the day was very cloudy till 11AM and hence the owl was still active.

The bird was active on the rainy day and was flying from perch to perch, probably hunting. But then, the sun broke through the clouds sometimes and the Shikra which surprisingly was roosting in the same tree attacked the Owl. The Owl which wasn't an agile flyer found itself challenged repeatedly by an agile Shikra who several times pecked the Owl on the head. The Owl had to land on bare trees and face the the Shikra at which point the aggressor landed far away. Surprisingly, the Shikra was only attacking the Owl when it was flying. This happened for a while after which the Owl disappeared into the canopy, while the Shikra went about on its day business!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The look in that owls eyes, totally martyred.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

LOL. Me every morning because i always go to sleep too late

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Shikra

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Yeah that camouflage is pretty amazing. And I've been really surprised how many of these owls you're posting are in the tropics?! My whole life, I thought of owls as cold weather birds for some reason.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It's one of the really neat things I'm able to appreciate about the owls at this point. I'm starting to get to more abstract species trying to find ones I haven't seen yet that are visually different than more well known ones, and finding ones like this that are so different from any other blows my mind. Even the ones that live near wherever we're all from are mysterious to us due to their nature, so it's hard to comprehend the expansiveness of the world of owls. Some like the Barred and Barn are so successful they are almost everywhere, and others like the various Pacific Island species are only found in 1 unique ecosystem in the whole world, but they have been successful at doing that for tens of thousands of years.

I forget if it was you the other day that commented first about not knowing about the tropic owls, but I like comments like that since it gives me something more specific to post about for you guys. I want to make sure I keep it fresh and get to keep showing you new things to keep you excited about owls. Some of these obscure guys can be hard to find pics of, but to me I'll take a meh pic of an owl I don't see much over a high quality hundredth pic of a common one. I love them all, but I need that variety!

So if there's anything else anyone is curious about, don't be afraid to say something. I won't ever try to make anyone look dumb, and I'll try to find an answer to whatever I can. After all, I'm not anywhere close to an expert on any of this, just a fan like you all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Well I really appreciate the effort you put into this. It's so much fun to read these posts and learn about owls I would never have known existed otherwise. Like, somehow I could always imagine like sparrows being this diverse, but it would never have occurred to me that owls are as well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Ironically, what I do giving them exposure is probably what an owl would want the least...their whole thing is being unseen and unheard, and I go around messing it up every day! 😅

I'm glad you enjoy it, I know I've learned more than I thought possible about them too.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

A Mottled Wood Owl in flight

A pretty large owl found among thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But we got lucky this time that the day was very cloudy till 11AM and hence the owl was still active.

We sighted it on a quiet perch and the White Bellied Drongo was just harassing the Owl like it always does. The wise Owl was patient conserving its energy and bore the harassment occasionally flying out to other trees in the distance. Shot this during one such moment.