Omani Owl Range Expansion
From Birding Iran
Omani Owl (Strix butleri) in east of Iran.
Amir Kouhestani found the first record of this species for South Khorasan Province in Nehbandan on June 12. Omani Owl has a vast distribution in Iran and probably it breeds in Afghanistan too.
So, I normally don't like sharing anonymous posts from essentially anonymous sources, but I couldn't find this pic shared anywhere else, so it's at least not obviously stolen, and it lead me to some interesting reading, do I'm going to share anyway.
I didn't get to read this paper in full yet to verify the claims, but it does seem a short paper was published about previously undocumented territorial expansion of both the Omani Owl and the Brown Fish Owl to Iran.
The interesting bits I saw include name changes for both owls and concerning the timeline owl the discoveries.
One suggestion is to change the name Omani Owl to Golden Owl, as it was named when it was thought to only be in Oman. The other is to name the subspecies of Brown Fish Owl to the Western Brown Fish Owl. It seems they were in the Iran area around 1900 but then went locally extinct, but are now back.
I also saw mention the owls were photographed around 10 years before they started being publicly noticed. The original photographer of the oldest known modern picture was not aware of what a rare bird they had captured in the country. I thought that was a fun fact.
I think Omani (Golden?) Owls look very unique and they're pretty rare, so I just felt like searching for some info on them.
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The paper was pretty good!
I covered a lot of it above, but it talked about how these owls may have been there for a long time, even though most people thought they weren't, largely due to both being nocturnal, preferring remote and uninhabited places, and just poor information gathering before everyone has cameras on their person at all times and social media to share weird finds like strange birds.
They think there may be significant populations of both owls in the country, and that the Omani Owl, based on the location of some sightings, may even extend into Afghanistan or Pakistan, and the Western Brown Fish Owl maybe showing up in Iraq or Kuwait, where they haven't been seen since 1920, which would be exciting.
This again highlights just how little we know about a lot of wildlife, and how with modern tools, any of us can play a valuable role in getting these populations noticed and protected. We can't save what we don't know is there!
Neat!
Is "Strix butleri" any relation to a butler? Because now I'm seeing him in a little tux announcing visitors and such.
Of course, we know he's a fierce predator and ruler of all things, but y'know - words is funny.
Yes, as in a Butler. Eton College alum and imperial British Colonel Edward Butler. Wiki says he was found dead in his garden, age 72, and cause of death was given as "suicide during temporary insanity,” whatever that entails.
Name was given to the owl by fellow imperial bird nerd, Allan Hume, who is credited for naming a toooooon of birds and other animals including: Andaman Masked Owl, Andaman Scops Owl, Hume's Owl, Pallid Scops Owl, and the Sri Lankan Bay Owl.
I couldn't find much beyond the wiki page on Butler, but Hume is really something. What that something is, I have mixed feelings on but here is a good teaser for his wiki page.
In a way, Butler was a fierce predator in his own right...again, probably great for science in general, probably not great for all those ecosystems and likely a lot of exploitation and taking credit for other people showing him all these animals, and being British Army in those places at that time, I don't know enough to comment, but I'm going to assume not totally altruistic.
Wow, good to know on both counts.
This Hume fellow was, ah, interested in birds. I think we can say.
I feel I have an unusual but still healthy fondness for owls and birds of prey, but if I had a 6 digit body count of them in storage, that may be cause for concern.... 😬
It was a different time. Camera phones weren’t so widespread. 😄
Geopolitics aside, I think my real beef with these types of guys as it pertains to the animals themselves is I don't see how a person could ever appropriately appreciate that many animals as living creatures.
It feels more like speed running getting every Pokemon card ever made so you can complete a list, rather than it being out of a passion for the animals.
Like did the guy ever even have time to admire all these specimens, or did he send randos out saying "bring me one of everything" and just toss the carcasses to a room full of taxidermists and then call himself an ornithologist?
Again, can't knock the results for science, but the means just really give me the ick.
Bah, I didn't mean to be all serious and gloomy when you were trying to have fun.
Oh totally agree, and i’d be shocked if there weren’t a little on-the-spectrum-ness going on, not to mention the colonialism, racism, and so on.
But it’s hard to imagine a world like that. Where your worldview is shaped almost entirely by books and guest speakers.