IDENTIFICATION

VOCALISATIONS

The song of O. s. malayanus is a vigorous rhythmic three-note phrase toit ta-toit, with the second and third notes close together, repeated at about 35 phrases per minute and clearly audible at a distance of c. 500 metres (Lewthwaite & Yu 2007).

By contrast, the song of O. s. sticonotus on its northern breeding grounds consists of three evenly-spaced notes kroik ku jooh (Konig & Weick 2008).

DISTRIBUTION & HABITAT PREFERENCE

Thinly distributed but fairly widespread, with records in the central and northern New Territories, Kowloon, HK Island, Lantau and Po Toi. Most records in autumn/early winter are in closed-canopy shrubland on hillsides up to about 400m asl, occasionally also fung shui woods, stands of trees on the edge of open areas and urban parks. Favoured sites are Cloudy Hill and Robin’s Nest. Records in spring/summer are from the lowlands, shrubland slopes and forest up to 500 metres asl at Tai Po Kau.

OCCURRENCE

Oriental Scops Owl is recorded near-annually but predominantly in autumn and early winter between 1 October and 18 December, with a later record of a moribund bird on 2 January. There are also three spring and summer records, all between 1 April and 13 June, including a long-staying individual at Tai Po Kau from 19 April to 13 June 2000. Apart from two at Cloudy Hill on 24 October 1999 and two at Robin’s Nest on 14 November 2014, all records are of single birds.

Figure 1 shows weekly aggregates of 45 birds recorded in the wild in the years 1999-2020. The overall pattern of records, with 80% of the total in autumn and 20% in spring and summer, is somewhat skewed by the long-staying individual at Tai Po Kau in spring/summer 2000, but it can be seen that autumn numbers build slowly from the beginning of October to peak between the end of October and the middle of November, then decline again in December.

In addition, there are records of a further 14 individuals that were taken into care in the years 2003-2018 having been found injured or in weak condition, mostly in the urban areas in October and November.

Wing and tail measurements are known for four individuals trapped from 11 October to 18 December in the years 1965-1997, all of which match subspecies stictonotus based on Konig and Weick (2008). In addition, five individuals taken into care since 2011 from 8 October to 16 November also match stictonotus based on wing and tail measurements. The only other individual determined to subspecies was the long-staying bird at Tai Po Kau in 2000 which is referrable to malayanus on the basis of its vocalisations.

The first records in HK involved a grey-morph seen closely at Stanley on 8 December 1944 and a rufous-morph that was picked up on a path at Stanley on 2 January 1945 and died the same night (Herklots 1947, 1953). Apart from one seen at Robin’s Nest on 11 April 1997, all subsequent records prior to 1999 were in autumn/early winter from 11 October to 18 December.

BEHAVIOUR, FORAGING & DIET

Birds in autumn or early winter may allow very close approach, even to 1-2 metres. This has been noted in a Lantana bush by day (Herklots 1953) or low in the canopy hunting for prey at night from the edge of relatively undisturbed minor roads or tracks in areas of closed-canopy shrubland (Holmes 2002). The bird on territory in Tai Po Kau from April to June 2000 sang with intensity for periods of an hour or more in April, including bouts at 36 phrases per minute without pause for over 5 minutes. It was heard only at night, and the level of intensity of singing was greatly reduced by June. The only food item noted is an unidentified beetle, on which was feeding at Cloudy Hill in autumn.

RANGE & SYSTEMATICS

Polytypic, with nine subspecies currently recognised. Differences in vocalisations of the various subspecies suggest that there may be more than one species in the complex (Konig & Weick 2008). Breeds in widespread areas from Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka east through Burma, north Indochina and China to southeast Siberia, Korea and Japan, with populations in the eastern part of the range wintering south to the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra (Konig & Weick 2008). In China, O. s. stictonotus breeds in the north and northeast and passes through eastern and southern provinces on migration, and O. s. malayanus is a summer visitor or resident in southern provinces including Guangdong.

Individuals are identifiable to subspecies if vocalising or if their wing and tail lengths are known. A further feature by which the subspecies can be separated is that the tarsus is feathered to the base of the toes on stictonotus but is bare for the apical quarter on malayanus (Wells 1999)

CONSERVATION STATUS

IUCN: Least Concern. Population trend stable.