Spotted Owlet

The spotted owlet is a small, stocky owl, barely 21 cm long. The upperparts are grey-brown, heavily spotted with white, and the underparts are white streaked with brown. The facial disc is pale and the iris yellow, with a white neckband and eyebrow. It breeds in tropical Asia from north Pakistan to Southeast Asia and roosts in small groups in tree hollows or cavities in rocks and buildings (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is nocturnal but often seen by day, when small birds mobbing it help show where it is perching. The call is a harsh, loud churring and chuckling, chirurr-chirurr-chirurr ending in chirwak-chirwak, mostly at early dawn or just after sunset. It hunts a variety of insects and small vertebrates; the young are fed first on insects such as cockroaches and later on small vertebrates such as mice, and a toad has been noted in Gujarat. It nests in a hole in a tree or building, laying three to five, typically three or four, spherical white eggs. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident of non-specialised habitat that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).