On eBird ↗
Rodrigues Scops-Owl
Live sightings near you, the range map, bar charts of when it is seen, and Macaulay Library photos and recordings.
Rodrigues Scops-Owl
Otus murivorus
The Rodrigues scops owl (Otus murivorus), also known as Rodrigues owl, Rodrigues lizard owl, Leguat's owl, or (somewhat misleadingly) Rodrigues little owl, is an extinct species of small owl. It lived on the Mascarene island of Rodrigues before going extinct. It is part of the three Mascarene owls, formerly classified in the genus Mascarenotus, although they are now classified in the genus Otus. Like many of the Mascarene land-birds, the genus was a distinct relative to South-East Asian taxa, in this case apparently being a descendant of the direct ancestor of the Oriental scops owl.
From the article Rodrigues scops owl on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
This insular scops owl had evolved gigantism, becoming twice as large and four times heavier than its continental ancestor.
What it does
Tafforet's description of the bird reads as follows in 1725-1726:
A bird is seen nearly like the earless owl, and which eats the small birds or the small lizards; they stay almost always in the trees, and when they feel the good weather; they sing at night; and always the same song on the contrary when they feel the bad weather they are not heard; (…) some Wagtails are seen, with some other small birds; which have a nice plumage, but they are always on the look out for the birds of prey which are the earless owls that I mentioned before; Leguat mentioned the owl in passing:
In place of the Americans who have garter snakes naturally exterminating of this ugly breed, cats and dogs even that are trained to wage war on them, we had only the assistance of the owls and of our traps.
A 2020 X-ray microtomography study of the inner ear of the Rodrigues scops owl suggested some level of terrestrialisation and sedentarisation, supported by the reduction of the wings in this and the other Mascarene owls. Its sense of olfaction was better than it is extant relatives, which could indicate partial scavenging habits, and its more sideways facing eyes, smaller brain, fearlessness, less upright posture and increased size are consistent with specialisation on an isolated island.
Wikipedia: “Behaviour and ecology”
Listen
Looking for field recordings…
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Otus murivorus in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 956115.