Sime Forest 27Aug06

From JS

Today, my father and I went to Rifle Range to check on the arrival of migrants but were rewarded with two owl sightings, an unidentified owl and a Buffy Fish-owl. Considering the difficulty of sighting two owls, the trip was fruitful.

However, we got more than we bargained for. Again, we saw the Spiny Terrapin (Heosemys spinosa) accompanied by photographs of its head, a short-tailed babbler that got restless while waiting for a good photograph by us and rather late sighting of a chestnut-winged babbler.

The star of the day is the unidentified owl.

Below is its description:

Size: 20-30cm
Call: ti-ii ti-ii ti-ii, similar to savanna nightjar's tui-ii tui-ii tui-ii but lack the "u" sound, and more shrieky and erratic, called during flight.
Features:
1) Miniature version of its larger cousin, Buffy Fish-owl, but has that roundish face of the barn owl
2) Its face is half the size of its body
3) Two pointed ears at the top of its head, imagine the red devil with a shorter horn
4) Its wing fringing had a pattern of black, pale rectangles, like a nightjar

1) Pacific Swallow
2) Striped Tit-babbler
3) Short-tailed Babbler
4) Chestnut-winged Babbler
5) White-rumped Shama (h)
6) Hill Myna (h)
7) Crimson Sunbird (2 males)
8) Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker (h)
9) Buffy Fish-owl
10) Brown Boobook
11) Dark-necked Tailorbird (h)
12) Dollarbird
13) Red-breasted Parakeet (h)
14) Treron sp. (green pigeon)

From KH: I can't help but comment that that's a neat little schematic of the unidentified owl! ;) Anyway, our consensus is that it is a Collared Scops-owl.