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#350 Siau Scops Owl

Critically Endangered

There was only one found back in 1866, and they have not been seen since. I could not find any pictures of that one specimen so I do not know if it was even preserved. Their calls are unknown, likely because the one collected didn't have a chance to say anything before being killed. They are small, under 7 inches tall, so could be easy to miss. There are only approximately 123 acres of forest left in Siau Island, the rest having been felled and replaced with agriculture and other things. Occasionally there have been reports of hearing an interesting call that could possibly belong to the owl, so hopefully there are still some remaining in that small forest area. The one description of them I saw was very limited, so I used an Indonesian stamp for colouring, and also looked at pictures of the scops owl they initially were assumed to be a sub-species of.


My oldest and I like to go on a walk at night. Well, he is at least willing to go with me because I don't go alone. There is a park near us that has a stream and a sort of swampy area as well. Bullfrogs are an invasive species and cause a real problem for native frogs as well as they will eat ducklings. They have such an interesting sound though. On the trail near the swampy area during the day you might see frogs, almost certainly will see nutria, but at night the bullfrogs are incredibly loud and fun to listen to. While using a flashlight to see if we could see any of the many frogs calling while we stood there, all we could see were many bats doing what they do best, eliminating mosquitoes! It was incredible to watch the bats zip past us over the water while we were serenaded by frogs. My son saw an owl the other day as well. I didn't get to see it because the path was uneven so I was watching my feet. I don't know what kind of an owl it was, and I wish I could have seen it. In our neighbourhood we might also see coyotes, raccoons, opossums, and skunks, but not much else. Near my parents it would not be so safe. On the drive home from their house one night I just barely managed to avoid hitting a baby bear that followed his mom across the road. I did once see a Northern Goshawk on our fence. I have no idea what brought it to our area, I'd never seen one before and have never seen one since. I had come home from taking my kids to school, pulled into my driveway, and it was there looking angry at me. I tried to get my phone out to take its picture, but it left before I was able to.

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