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Thanks for the previous one.

Can you confirm for me if I am correct.

I believe this one to be a spotted eale owl. Of course,I may be wrong.

Something says Southern White-faced Scops Owl to me. Especially the ear tufts.

I think the white face might point towards White Faced Scops Owl! I think the garden boy is right.

Agree 100% with WTM.

It is not a Giant Eagle Owl.

It lacks the pink above the eye which is diagnostic of the Giant Eagle Owl.

Also the dark "bar" going "through" the eye and very white face is typical of the White-faced Owl.

Have to admit that the Giant Eagle-owl remark is not that far fetched as my first thought of the owl was that it is a Verreaux's (Giant) Eagle-owl and am still of the opinion that it is one.


A main reason why I did not comment on the owl as the photo is taken over some distance it seems.


Have to admit that you have great eye sight as I battle to make out detail in the eye area. Must get you as co game spotter.


I have never before seen a bar running through the eye of Southern White-faced Scops-Owl or any other owl of SA. and assume you are pointing at the black coloured feathers around the eye which when extended appears to be a line. The face is also not very white but more light grey which will not exclude Giant Eagle Owl

This owl just seems too big to be White-faced Scops-Owl which only about 28cm tall so nearly the length of a ruler and at that distance would appear much smaller than the bird in the photo. But as said in the beginning the photo is not clear enough for me to make a definite decision on this one.

Many thanks for that explanation francoisd.

It helps to know these small details when trying to ID a bird.

I will try and find the video I took of the bird and I might get a clearer picture.

Things against an accurate identification are that it was over a fair distance. It was windy that day so the owl was havings it's feathers ruffled. Obviously the quality of the picture, and since I had a fair distance to cover, I could not spend more time trying to accurately ID it at the time.

If my plans come together for my 4 night trip in August, I will go and look for the bird again. It was nesting in the hollow of the tree, so chances are, it may be there again although I realise that the odds for this are not great.

Ha!! Verreaux's don't nest in hollows.

According to Roberts PDA neither does White-faced Scops-owl but Spotted Eagle-owl does sometimes use a "hole in a tree".

According to my sources, white-faced nests in holes as well as on stick nests.

I also take the single white bar running along the wing into consideration for white-faced.

The Verreaux's shows a white shoulder line as well as secondary white line on the secondaries I would assume.

My initial view was that the ear tufts also looks just to prominent for a verreaux's. Perhaps pointing to the smaller of the two owls because of the smaller head.

As said before to me the photo is not clear enough and it is difficult to get an indication of size so I will settle with the majority vote on this one.

I stand to be corrected. They do nest on top of trees, cavities in trees and even in holes in the ground. So this cannot be taken into consideration to differentiate the two from each other.

I tried to get some better pics of the owl off the video cam.

They are closer views of the Scops / GEO, but grainy.

Hope they can clear up the debate that raged a little earlier.

Re; Owl ID

I rest my case! If any one is still unsure, have a look at the photos in Ulrich Oberprielers Raptor book. The illustrations in the other bird books could leave one unsure.