|Conservation status||Least concern|
The Brown hawk-owl (Ninox scutulata), also known as the brown boobook or oriental boobook, is a medium-sized owl found in much of southern Asia and Indonesia.
Brown hawk-owls are about 13 inches in length, with a wingspan of up to 19 inches. The upper plumage is a dark brown, with ochre-colored bands streaking the primaries and secondaries of the wings. The underside is whitish in color, bearing brown streaking throughout. The legs are feathered to the toes.
It is called a "hawk-owl" due to similarities in shape and appearance to hawks; like other members of the genus Ninox it lacks a facial disk, yet still retains the distinctive owl-like eyes, which are yellow in color.
Brown hawk-owls subsist on large insects such as beetles and grasshoppers, but will also take frogs, lizards, small birds and rodents, and occasionally small bats.
Researchers have recognized eleven subspecies:
- N. s. borneensis
- Borneo, northern Natuna Islands.
- N. s. burmanica
- East Assam to southern China, northern Malaysia, Thailand and Indochina.
- N. s. hirsuta
- South India, Sri Lanka.
- N. s. japonica
- Eastern China, central and southern Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
- N. s. javanensis
- Indonesia (western Java Island)
- N. s. lugubris
- North and central India to west Assam.
- N. s. obscura
- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
- N. s. palawanensis
- Philippines (Palawan island )
- N. s. randi
- Philippines (Luzon, Marinduque, Mindoro, Negros, Basilan, Cebu, Siquijor, Mindanao islands).
- N. s. scutulata
- South Malay Peninsula, Riau Archipelago, Sumatra and Bangka.
- N. s. ussuriensis
- Southeastern Siberia, southeastern Manchuria, North Korea. A specimen of this subspecies was found dead on the Alaskan island of Kiska in 2008, indicating the possibility of spreading to the North American continent.