The jungle owlet (''Glaucidium radiatum'') or barred jungle owlet is native to the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

. The species is often found singly, in pairs or small groups and they are usually detected by their calls at dawn and dusk. There are two subspecies with that found in the Western Ghats sometimes considered a full species.

Description

This small owlet has a rounded head and is finely barred all over. There is no clear facial disk and the wings are brownish and the tail is narrowly barred in white. There are two subspecies, the nominate form is found in the plains of India and Sri Lanka, while ''G. r. malabaricum'' of the Western Ghats is shorter tailed and shows more brown on the head. It has been suggested that the latter may warrant full species status. The plumage on the upper parts is dark black-brown barred with white. The wing coverts have white and rufous patches. The primaries and secondaries are dark brown and barred with pale chestnut. The lower side is whitish or pale rufous barred with black. There is a whitish patch on the chin, upper breast and centre of the abdomen. The iris is yellow, the bill and tarsi are greenish with black claws. In Sri Lanka, the

chestnut-backed owlet The chestnut-backed owlet (''Glaucidium castanotum'') (often misspelled ''Glaucidium castanonotum''), is an owl which is endemic to Sri Lanka. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, Strigidae, which contains ...

(''Glaucidium castanonotum'') was once included as a subspecies but this is elevated to full species. It is found in the wet zone whereas ''G. radiatum'' is found in drier forests.

Habitat and distribution

They are found in habitats ranging from scrub forest to deciduous and moist deciduous forests. They are found south of the Himalayas and in some parts of the Himalayas up to an elevation of , extending from Dalhousie in the west, east to

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

Behaviour and ecology

This owlet is mainly active at dawn and dusk, but is known to call and fly during the daytime as well. The call is distinctive and consists of a rapid series of ''prao..prao.prao-prao-prao'' that increases and then fades in volume before ending abruptly. At their daytime roosts, they may be mobbed by

drongo The drongos are a family, Dicruridae, of passerine birds of the Old World tropics. The 30 species in the family are placed in a single genus, ''Dicrurus''. Drongos are mostly black or dark grey, short-legged birds, with an upright stance when ...

s, treepies and sunbirds. During the day, young nestlings produce ''tick'' calls not unlike that of a

pale-billed flowerpecker The pale-billed flowerpecker or Tickell's flowerpecker (''Dicaeum erythrorhynchos'') is a tiny bird that feeds on nectar and berries, found in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and western Myanmar. The bird is common especially in urban gardens with ...

. They roost inside tree cavities and when disturbed they freeze and appear like a dead tree stump. They sometimes perch prominently on wires or bask in the morning sun before retiring to their roost. They have been known to capture small ''Phylloscopus'' warblers during the day, although their peak foraging hours are an hour before sunrise and after sunset. Their diet consists of insects, small birds, reptiles, and rodents. The breeding season in India is March to May and they nest in the hollow of a tree at a height of . The typical clutch consists of four eggs (three eggs in ''G. r. malabaricum'').

References

External links

Owl pages

Internet Bird Collection

Calls
{{Taxonbar, from=Q912197

jungle owlet The jungle owlet (''Glaucidium radiatum'') or barred jungle owlet is native to the Indian Subcontinent. The species is often found singly, in pairs or small groups and they are usually detected by their calls at dawn and dusk. There are two subsp ...

Birds of South Asia