African Wood Owl

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Saturday May 10th, 2008

African Wood Owl
Strix woodfordii

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As of February 2005.
Description	Medium sized, dark eyed owl with no ear tufts. Brown above spotted with white, rufous and dark barring on whitish background below. Brown facial disk with white eyebrows.
Size	30-36cm, 240-350g
Range	Africa from Senegambia to Sudan south to Angola, Kenya, Zaire and down the east coast to South Africa.
Habitat	Forest and woodland also plantations.
Food	Mainly insects but also reptiles, small mammals and birds.
Breeding	July-October. 1-3 eggs laid normally in tree cavity. Incubation is about 31 days. The young leave the nest by about 5 weeks of age and can fly by 7 weeks. The young remain with parents up to 4 months and sometimes stay until the next breeding season.
Call	Loud explosive sequence of rapid hoots.
Status	Not globally threatened. Very common in most of its range.
Comments	This species, and 4 neo-tropical New World Wood Owls formerly formed a separate genus, Ciccaba, based on differences in ear structure from other Strix. Recent DNA analysis has shown that this separation is unjustified.
Races	Other races are described but are not separable from other races.
S.w.woodfordii	S Angola, S Zaire and SW Tanzania to the Cape
S.w.umbrina	Ethiopia and SW Sudan
S.w.nigricantior	S Somalia, Kenya, Somalia, Zanzibar and E Zaire
S.w.nuchalis	Senegambia to S Sudan and Uganda, to N Angola and N & W Zaire

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