Greyish eagle-owl

Appearance

This species is about 43 cm long and weighs about 500 g. Like the spotted eagle-owl, the greyish eagle-owl has mottled dark brown, buff, and white upperparts and finely barred underparts giving a greyish-brown appearance. It differs from the spotted eagle-owl in having dark brown eyes and a brownish facial disk marked with a heavy brown circle around each eye. It also has morphological differences, such as being lighter though about the same length and having shorter tarsi.

Distribution

It is found in the northern part of sub-Saharan Africa from Mauritania and Liberia east to Sudan and Somalia.

Behavior

Roosts during the day are hidden and vary from rocky natural sites such as cliff crevices and boulders to bushes and trees to man-made structures. It feeds on larger insects and other large arthropods as well as vertebrates. It usually hunts from a perch, using a sit-and-wait technique, but may also hawk insects and sometimes bats in flight. The breeding biology is probably similar to the spotted eagle-owl. It lays 2 or 3 eggs in a scrape on the ground or among rocks or in a sheltered cliff site, although it will sometimes reuse the old platform-like nests of larger birds in trees.

Habitat

Its habitats include dry rocky deserts and open savannah, as well as lowland forests in Somalia.