For the first time since it was first discovered 125 ago, people have spotted the Bornean subspecies of the Rajah Scops Owl in the montane forest of Mount Kinabalu, Malaysia.
Ecologists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center made the announcement last month in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology, where they also attached the first images of it in its natural habitat.
The scientists noted that while most of the basic elements of this owlâs ecology are still unknown â e.g. sounds, distribution, breeding biology, and the size of its population â
âphylogeographic patterns of montane birds in Borneo and Sumatra, as well as plumage characters, suggest that O. b. brookii may be deserving of species classification.â
An extremely rare owl with bright orange eyes that hadn’t been seen in more than a hundred years has been rediscovered in Malaysia. Named
Otus brookii brookii, it is a Bornean subspecies of the Rajah scops owl. Scientists last witnessed this owl back in 1892 and nobody knows what type of songs or sounds/calls it makes.
The rediscovery of the owl occurred in May of 2016 but the study was just recently published in the
Wilson Journal of Ornithology. It was witnessed and photographed in Sabah, Malaysia by Andy Boyce who is an ecologist from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. He worked with locals, people from several Indigenous communities, and officials from Sabah Park.
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In May 2017, the NGO Mighty Earth revealed the destruction of government forest reserves in Côte d’Ivoire by cocoa cultivation: out of 234, only six were still relatively intact. Deforestation outside reserves, largely due to cocoa, was also severe: 94% of Côte d’Ivoire ’s humid tropical forest was gone. Many had known what was happening. […]
by Gia Yetikyel/Smithsonianmag.com
An easy way to find and identify a bird species is to listen for their unique calls. But
Otus brookii brookii, a Bornean subspecies of the Rajah scops owl, hasn’t been observed by scientists since 1892, and its song is unknown, making it that much harder to find.
Now, for the first time in more than 125 years, researchers have documented the Rajah scops owl in a study published last month in the
Wilson Journal of Ornithology.
In May 2016, Andy Boyce, an ecologist with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, carefully observed and photographed the owl in Sabah, Malaysia. Boyce was working on his Ph.D. at the time with the University of Montana, researching how different bird species behave across various elevations. In collaboration with local residents, Sabah Park officials and several individuals from indigenous communities, like the Dusun, the rediscovery took place during a 10-year study of avian evolution in the forests of Mount Kina