Brown Hawk Owl, 4/20/2012

Heard that a Brown Hawk Owl appeared in a park in Jingmei, Taipei City, I headed for the park. When I arrived at the park, there were already more than ten big long-range lens cameras there. This park also hosts the Black-naped Orioles which nest here every year in the last few years. Usually, birdwatching fans come here mainly for the Black-naped Orioles, but this is not the case today. Today the focus is on the Brown Hawk Owl. Most of the birdwatching fans aimed at the Brown Hawk Owl. Being not able to find a good position to take the pictures, I choosed a somewhat good position and took some pictures. Most of the time the bird was sleeping on a tree branch, and only half opened its eye occasionally to check out the enthusiastic birdwatching fans below. Without patience to wait for it to widely open its eye, I left after taking some pictures from some somewhat better positions.

Later I heard this bird is a released bird released by Wild Bird Society of Taipei, neither a migratory bird nor a local species. No wonder it appeared in heavily populated city area, and created a sensation in the birdwatching society.

Chinese name:	褐鷹鴞
English name:	Brown Hawk Owl
Nickname:
Scientific name:	Emberiza pusilla
Order:	Strigiformes
Family:	Strigidae
Species status:	Species
Conservation status:	IUCN listed it as Least Concern, but Taiwan listed it as "Class II Rare and Valuable Species".
Migration status:	Winter/Summer migratory bird, passage migrant or local bird in Taiwan
Frequency of appearance:	Rare in Taiwan
Foods:	Small animals, insects
Habitat:	Woodlands
Altitude:	Low to mid-altitude
Behavior:	Often appear alone in well-wooded areas
Characteristics:	General Characteristics: About 29 cm long. Iris is yellow. Bill is black. Toes are yellow. No head tufts. Plumage is mainly dark brown. Breast and belly are gray-white with wide and irregular vertical chocolate stripes.
Breeding places:	Widely spread in Asia.
Migration destinations:	North Asia species will be wintering in South Asia, and South Asia species will be summering in North Asia.
Time photographed:	4/20/2012
Location found:	Jingmei, Taipei City
Sources:	Internet
Notes:	It is said the local species in Taiwan was first found in Lanyu island, and was named the totogo subspecies.