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.