Romblon Hawk Owl
ROMBLON HAWK-OWL
Ninox spilonota
Family Strigidae
endemic, endangered
Bird # 481 - April 2015
There is not much forest left in Tablas which is where we saw a pair of these Romblon Hawk Owls. Most the forest has been converted into coconut plantations. But there are still owls around. We saw and heard more of the Mantanani Scops than the Romblon Hawk. These owls were part of the Philippine Hawk Owl complex and are now a separate species. There are two races under Romblon Hawk, one found in Tablas fisheri named after the late Tim Fisher, and the bird in Romblon spilonata.
The rate of destruction of the forest in Tablas is the biggest danger facing these birds and all the remaining forest birds in that small island. These birds nest in the cavities of big trees.
We saw two owls which we assumed were an adult pair. One had more brown and the other was much lighter. We don't know which one is the male or female. We will just update this when we get more information in the future. Chris Artuso said in the Owls of the World Facebook group that "I have noticed that in both Cebu Hawk-Owl and Romblon Hawk-Owl, some birds are a darker chestnut and others are a paler buffier colour. This may also be true for some of the other island endemic boobooks. In my few observations of these two species, the female has been darker in colour (based on voice comparison, size comparison and behvioural observations) but the "sample size" is much too small to know if this is colour dimorphism (perhaps with an assortive mating preference as is fairly common in some other genera in Strigidae) or if there is a sexual colour difference."
Read MoreNinox spilonota
Family Strigidae
endemic, endangered
Bird # 481 - April 2015
There is not much forest left in Tablas which is where we saw a pair of these Romblon Hawk Owls. Most the forest has been converted into coconut plantations. But there are still owls around. We saw and heard more of the Mantanani Scops than the Romblon Hawk. These owls were part of the Philippine Hawk Owl complex and are now a separate species. There are two races under Romblon Hawk, one found in Tablas fisheri named after the late Tim Fisher, and the bird in Romblon spilonata.
The rate of destruction of the forest in Tablas is the biggest danger facing these birds and all the remaining forest birds in that small island. These birds nest in the cavities of big trees.
We saw two owls which we assumed were an adult pair. One had more brown and the other was much lighter. We don't know which one is the male or female. We will just update this when we get more information in the future. Chris Artuso said in the Owls of the World Facebook group that "I have noticed that in both Cebu Hawk-Owl and Romblon Hawk-Owl, some birds are a darker chestnut and others are a paler buffier colour. This may also be true for some of the other island endemic boobooks. In my few observations of these two species, the female has been darker in colour (based on voice comparison, size comparison and behvioural observations) but the "sample size" is much too small to know if this is colour dimorphism (perhaps with an assortive mating preference as is fairly common in some other genera in Strigidae) or if there is a sexual colour difference."
