The Palawan scops owl (''Otus fuliginosus'') is an owl

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

only being found on the island of

Palawan Palawan (, ), officially the Province of Palawan (; ), is an archipelagic province of the Philippines that is located in the region of Mimaropa. It is the largest province in the country in terms of total area of . The capital and largest c ...

. It is found on tropical moist lowland forest. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Description and taxonomy

EBird eBird is an online database of bird observations providing scientists, researchers and amateur naturalists with real-time data about bird distribution and abundance. Originally restricted to sightings from the Western Hemisphere, the project e ...

describes the bird as "A fairly small owl of lowland forest. Dark brown above with a white bar behind the shoulder, and paler and warmer brown below with black marks. Note the wide, shallow V-shape stretching from between the eyes out to the ends of the prominent ear tufts, and the dark facial shield incompletely bordered with white below. Eyes are deep orange. Similar to Mantanani Scops-Owl, which only occurs on small offshore islands off Palawan, but differs in eye color. Voice is a low rasping croak, 'gruk grrrrrrrrr'." It was once believed to be part of a species group with the Indian scops owl and the

Collared scops owl The collared scops owl (''Otus lettia'') is an owl which is a resident breeder in south Asia from northern Pakistan, northern India, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Himalayas east to southern China, and Taiwan. It is partially migratory, with some birds ...

but differs greatly in vocalizations.

Ecology and behavior

Not much is known about this owl but they are presumed to have similar habits to other closely related scops owls. Their diet is presumed to be insects, small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. They are presumed to live alone or in monogamous pairs and nests in tree hollows. Birds in breeding condition with enlarged gonads collected in April. Type specimen was a juvenile taken in July.

Habitat and conservation status

Its habitat is in tropical moist lowland

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

and even mixed cultivated areas – as long as there are still trees.

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

previously assessed this bird as

near threatened A near-threatened species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized as "Near Threatened" (NT) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as that may be vulnerable to Endangered species, endangerment in the ne ...

with the population being estimated at 10,000 to 19,999 mature individuals remaining but this species was reassessed as

Least-concern species A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

while retaining the same rough population estimate with a declining population, This downlisting is not a result of this species increasing in number but rather the supposed tolerance of this species to secondary forest which means that its rate of decline is slower than the rate of decline of primary forest. This species' main threat is

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

with wholesale clearance of forest habitats as a result of legal and

illegal logging Illegal logging is the harvest, transportation, purchase, or sale of timber in violation of laws. The harvesting procedure itself may be illegal, including using corrupt means to gain access to forests; extraction without permission, or from a p ...

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

and conversion into farmlands through

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a form of shifting cultivation that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a Field (agriculture), field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody p ...

or other methods.

References

BirdLife Species Factsheet
*http://www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Otus&species=fuliginosus Palawan scops owl Birds of Palawan Endemic birds of the Philippines Palawan scops owl {{Strigiformes-stub