Yesterday's post was on the black bittern I saw at Keoladeo NP in India. Immediately after seeing the black bittern we continued down a dirt road embankment between two swamps and a while later our guide spotted a dusky eagle-owl way off in the distance. I couldn't pick it out. Our guide set up his spotting scope and I got a view of the eagle-owl through it, then was able to see what to look for and saw it on a flat branch in some large trees. This was an additional confirmation to me that our guide had a trove of birds he'd learned about through his ten years working at Keoladeo and that this eagle-owl was likely a regular at that spot. As I noted in yesterday's post, this is exactly what I wanted when I offered to pay our guide 300 Rupees per each lifer bird he was able to find for me. I got a photo, but it was a long way away and my photo is grainy at best.
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| Illustration of the dusky eagle-owl from Birds of the World. |
The dusky eagle-owl is large, brown, has prominent ear tufts, and a pale facial disc framed by narrow black lines. The upperparts are dark brown with a grayish tinge, obscurely marked with long, narrow and widely spaced streaks of dark brown, with buffy-white spots on the wing coverts. The tail is dark brown, barred and paler at the tip. The underparts are a very pale brown with narrow black streaks.
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| Range map from Birds of the World. |
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