Forest Owlet

The forest owlet is a small, stocky owlet, about 23 cm long, with a rather unspotted crown, heavily banded wings and tail with white trailing edges, dark grey-brown upperparts, a pale facial disc and yellow eyes. It has fewer and fainter spots on the crown and back than the spotted owlet. It is endemic to the forests of central India and is threatened foremost by deforestation (Wikipedia, general species account).

It was not sighted after 1884 and was considered extinct for many years, known until 1997 from only seven museum specimens collected in northern Maharashtra and south-east Madhya Pradesh or western Odisha; Pamela Rasmussen and colleagues rediscovered it in November 1997 in the foothills of the Satpura Range. Nest cavities have been found 5–8 m up in trees such as Soymida febrifuga, and nestlings fledge after 30–32 days. In most areas the trees are too young to have suitable cavities, and it seems to prefer forest disturbed by people, with clearings, for foraging. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, with a Restricted range of about 16,700 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).