mottled wood owl

Whilst on Safari in Pench National Park, Nagpur, India one of the guides spotted a Mottled Wood Owl.  This unusual looking owl was sat enjoying some of the evening sun whilst getting mobbed by an assortment of other birds.

I was only able to get a couple of snaps of this owl and we didn’t see another for the rest of the trip.  Shooting with only a 400mm lens this is more of a reference shot.

The mottled wood owl (Strix ocellata) is a large owl species found in India and Nepal. They inhabit gardens and thin deciduous forests near dry thorn forests or farmland. These owls are easily recognizable by their eerie, tremulous calls at dawn and dusk. Their distinctive features include a lack of “ear” tufts, mottled reddish-brown and white plumage, and fine concentric black and white barring on the face. They roost during the day, often in pairs, and produce an antiphonal duet call.