This is an amazing owl I came across last night. Such wonderful coloration and texture to its appearance. It reminds me of a lightly charred log from a campfire. Nice high resolution photos too, so you can really check out all the details.

Photos and descriptions by Hari K Patibanda

Mottled Wood Owl Sighting by chance

A large owl around 50 cms tall and sighted in thick canopy cover. The Owl is exclusive to India and due to the Mottled body colors, is hard to spot without a call. It is known as a strong predator and is a true Nocturnal Owl unlike several others which are mostly twilight / crepuscular.

It was quite by chance that we came across the bird perched on a lovely tree. The day was very cloudy and that maybe the reason why the Owl was seen so late!

  • anon6789OP
    4•11 months ago

    A Mottled Wood Owl under the canopy

    A pretty large owl found among thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But the area we visited had a lot of thick canopy and was quite dark, so we could see the Owl still in the open much to our surprise.

    There were several Treepies, Drongoes and Bulbuls that were making noise and trying to scare the Owl, but the Owl was cool and bore the harassment occasionally flying out to other perches in the canopy. Shot this during one such moment.