Madagascar Red Owl

The Madagascar Red Owl (Tyto soumagnei) is an owl in the barn owl family Tytonidae. It is also known as the Madagascar Grass-owl and Soumange's Owl. It is a rare resident of Madagascar that was virtually unknown from its discovery in the 1878 to its rediscovery by researchers from the WWF in 1993. It is currently listed as endangered because of habitat loss, but information is lacking and it may have a wider range than believed. It has possibly been overlooked because of its close resemblence to the closely related Barn Owl.

The Madagascar Red Owl resembles the cosmopolitan Barn Owl but is smaller (30 cm) and has orange plumage with small black spots. It is known to live in humid evergreen forest in the east of the island, being found in primary forest and in disturbed secondary forest (possibly even human altered open areas). It feeds on native mammals like tenrecs, rice tenrecs and tuft-tailed rats (as opposed to the Barn Owl, which feeds on introduced species). It nests in tree-cavities, although there is only on record of a nest being found.

References

• Halleux, D. and Goodman, S. (1994) The rediscovery of the Madagascar Red Owl Tyto soumagnei (Grandidier 1878) in north-eastern Madagascar Bird Conservation International, 4,
• de Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Sargatal, J. eds (1999) Handbook of Birds of the World. Vol. 5. Barn-owls to Hummingbirds, Barcelona

External link

BirdLife International: Red Owl