Romblon Boobook
Ninox spilonotus
A rare medium-sized owl of lowland and foothill forest on Tablas, Romblon, and Sibuyan islands. Upperparts, chest, and head dark brown and indistinctly barred. Underparts reddish brown. Note the long whiskers around the face and the bright yellow eyes. Probably the only owl in its range except for Mantanani Scops-Owl, but Romblon Boobook is reddish rather than gray and lacks the black line around the face. Song is a phrase of three notes, “wik weu-weu,” with the second and third being descending rasping notes.
Taxonomy
EBird describes the bird as "A rare medium-sized owl of lowland and foothill forest on Tablas, Romblon, and Sibuyan islands. Upperparts, chest, and head dark brown and indistinctly barred. Underparts reddish brown. Note the long whiskers around the face and the bright yellow eyes. Probably the only owl in its range except for Mantanani scops-owl, but Romblon boobook is reddish rather than gray and lacks the black line around the face. Song is a phrase of three notes, 'wik weu-weu', with the second and third being descending rasping notes."<p>The Romblon boobook is an earless species. The males and females are similar in appearance. This species mates around February, nesting in hollow trees.<p>Along with the Camiguin boobook and Cebu boobook, it is the largest in the Philippine hawk-owl species complex reaching 25 cm tall versus the much smaller Luzon boobook, Mindanao boobook, Mindoro boobook and Sulu boobook, which range in size from 15 to 20 cm tall.<p>Two subspecies are recognized:
- Scientific name
- Ninox spilonotus
- Authority
- Bourns & Worcester, 1894
- Order
- Strigiformes
- Family
- Strigidae
- Genus
- Ninox
Range and habitat
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland primary forest and secondary forests up to an altitude of 1000 metres above sea level.<p>The IUCN Red List classifies this bird as an endangered species with population estimates of 250 to 999 mature individuals. This species' main threat is habitat loss with wholesale clearance of forest habitats as a result of legal and illegal logging, mining and conversion into farmlands through slash-and-burn and urbanization.<p>This species occurs in protected areas such as Mount Guiting-Guiting but protection is lax and logging still supposedly occurs. Mt Palaupau serves as a watershed for Tablas Island.<p>There is no species-specific conservation program at present.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
Green-backed Gerygone
Gerygone chloronota
Small plain bird with thin bill. Upperparts greenish brown, underparts mostly off-white, with gray crown, sharply contrasting white throat. Inhabits variety of tropical habitats, usually near water. Forages unobtrusively in mid-canopy. Calls sound more urgent than those of other gerygones.
Delicate Prinia
Prinia lepida
Tiny, disproportionately long-tailed, active, and vocal. The upperparts are gray-brown with heavy dark streaking, the underparts are pale, and each tail feather shows both pale and dark tips. Generally found in rather moist habitats within arid zones, including field margins, riparian woodland, scrub, gardens, and wetlands; can be quite numerous. Very vocal, especially in spring. The song is a rattling series of dry chirps, subtly different from the slower-paced song of Graceful Prinia. Males often sing from obvious perches. Visually extremely similar to Graceful Prinia, but there is little overlap in range. In any areas of overlap, best separated by song, but Delicate is also slightly longer- and narrower-tailed and browner.
Stripe-breasted Woodpecker
Dendrocopos atratus
Medium-sized black-and-white woodpecker with a dirty-yellow breast overlaid with fine black streaking. Male has a brilliant red crown extending from above the eye to the back of the neck. Similar Freckle-breasted Woodpecker has less warm-colored underparts and is considerably smaller. Stripe-breasted inhabits open forests, edges, gardens, and plantations from lowlands up into the mountains. Gives high-pitched sharp notes and long rattles; voice is generally higher-pitched than in other similar species. Joins mixed-species foraging flocks.
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