Superbowl

A Mottled Wood Owl under the canopy

A pretty large owl found among thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But the area we visited had a lot of thick canopy and was quite dark, so we could see the Owl still in the open much to our surprise.

There were several Treepies, Drongoes and Bulbuls that were making noise and trying to scare the Owl, but the Owl was cool and bore the harassment occasionally flying out to other perches in the canopy. Shot this during one such moment.

A Shikra mobbing a Mottled Wood Owl

Another day, another incident around the owl. The Mottled Wood Owl is a large owl found around thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But we got lucky this time that the day was very cloudy till 11AM and hence the owl was still active.

The bird was active on the rainy day and was flying from perch to perch, probably hunting. But then, the sun broke through the clouds sometimes and the Shikra which surprisingly was roosting in the same tree attacked the Owl. The Owl which wasn't an agile flyer found itself challenged repeatedly by an agile Shikra who several times pecked the Owl on the head. The Owl had to land on bare trees and face the the Shikra at which point the aggressor landed far away. Surprisingly, the Shikra was only attacking the Owl when it was flying. This happened for a while after which the Owl disappeared into the canopy, while the Shikra went about on its day business!

A Mottled Wood Owl in flight

A pretty large owl found among thick woody areas in the countryside. This is a true nocturnal owl active at nights and often hard to see in the day. But we got lucky this time that the day was very cloudy till 11AM and hence the owl was still active.

We sighted it on a quiet perch and the White Bellied Drongo was just harassing the Owl like it always does. The wise Owl was patient conserving its energy and bore the harassment occasionally flying out to other trees in the distance. Shot this during one such moment.

This poor face! 😆🥰

Yeah that camouflage is pretty amazing. And I've been really surprised how many of these owls you're posting are in the tropics?! My whole life, I thought of owls as cold weather birds for some reason.