The Himalayan owl (''Strix nivicolum''), also known as the Himalayan wood owl, is an owl of the forests of the Asia, from the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

to Korea and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Description

The Himalayan owl is a medium-sized owl with a rounded head without ear tufts. The head is mottled with grey, dark brown and light brown. The body is light brown with dark brown and yellow patches forming thin dark brown lines vertically on the owl’s breast. Flight feathers are dark brown with light brown spots towards their tips. Light brown and white horizontal lines form across their wings. Both sexes are morphologically similar. The Himalayan owl was once considered a subspecies of the

Tawny Owl The tawny owl (''Strix aluco''), also called the brown owl, is a stocky, medium-sized owl in the family Strigidae. It is commonly found in woodlands across Europe, as well as western Siberia, and has seven recognized subspecies. The tawny owl' ...

(''Strix aluco'').

Diet

The owl is nocturnal and begins hunting at dusk, it perches in trees and uses its hearing to locate prey. It is a generalist species eating small mammals, birds, frogs and occasionally catching fish from the water. It has been found to primarily eat rodents, specifically shrews of the

Crocidura The genus ''Crocidura'' is one of nine genera of the shrew subfamily Crocidurinae. Members of the genus are commonly called white-toothed shrews or musk shrews, although both also apply to all of the species in the subfamily. With over 180 sp ...

genus and mice of the Micromys genus.

Subspecies

The Himalayan owl has 3 recognized subspecies: * ''S. nivicolum nivicolum'' (Blyth, 1845) is distributed from Nepal to Southeast China, Myanmar and Indochina. It was described by English zoologist

Edward Blyth Edward Blyth (23 December 1810 – 27 December 1873) was an English zoologist who worked for most of his life in India as a curator of zoology at the Asiatic Society, Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta. He set about updating the museum ...

in 1845. * ''S. nivicolum ma'' (Clark, 1907) is distributed in Northeastern China and Korea. It was first described by American zoologist A. H. Clark in

Busan Busan (), officially Busan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's second list of cities in South Korea by population, most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.3 million as of 2024. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economi ...

, Korea in 1907. * ''S. nivicolum yamadae'' (Yamashina, 1936) - is located in the Alishan, Hsuehshan and Central mountain ranges of Taiwan. It was described by Japanese ornithologist Yoshimaru Yamashina in 1936.

Nivicolum subspecies

The Nivicolum subspecies is found around the

. Its habitat spans across Northern Pakistan, Northern India, Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal and Northern Myanmar. The species is known to inhabit these areas, however it is difficult to observe. It was formerly known as the Bengal tawny owl (''Syrnium aluco nivicolum''). The wingspan is larger, ranging from 282 to 312mm.

Ma subspecies

The Ma subspecies is found in the Northeastern Hebei, Jinan and Shandong provinces of China and on the Korean peninsula. The face is lightly outlined by a thin light brown ring. The body is lighter, ranging from grey to light brown.

Yamadae subspecies

The Yamadae subspecies is the most researched and observed it is the smallest of the three. It differs from the others as its nape is dark yellow with black spots. The face is darker with black dots forming an outline around the face. The throat is white, the upper body is dark brown with yellow spots. The chest and abdomen are yellow and white with defined black horizontal stripes. The bill is bright yellow and the talons are dark yellow. The wingspan ranges from 256-282mm and tail length from 149-171mm. It is only found in Taiwan, it lives in the Alishan, Hsuehshan and Central mountain ranges from 1000m to 2500m in elevation. It most commonly occupies valley and near-plateau forests composed of oak and conifers.

References

*Rasmussen, P.C., and J.C. Anderton. 2005. Birds of South Asia. The Ripley guide. Volume 2: attributes and status. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions, Washington D.C. and Barcelona. Himalayan owl Birds of the Himalayas Birds of China Himalayan owl Himalayan owl {{Strigiformes-stub