Owl’s Family
Owl is unmistakable bird species that everyone will recognise. With their ability to hunt at night, in the dark with their big eyes and great sense of hearing. Having said that, not may people will actually realise that owl is divided into some subfamily, which each of them will have different morphology and habitat.
Owls is divided into four subfamily, namely subfamily tytoninae, subfamily phodilinae, subfamily buboninae and subfamily striginae.
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Subfamily Tytoninae
Subfamily tytoninae is the easiest to recognise subfamily of owls. They are the famous barn owl, which have round, heart-alike face. This family will have white face and they are consist of twelve (note that some expert may have different opinion about the species) species of barn owls. This owl subfamily is also the reputed as the most widespread land bird in the world! They are everywhere except Antarctica.
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Subfamily Phodilinae
This owl subfamily is actually very rare. They like a little like barn owls, but on the top part it looking almost as if it were ears. There are two species of subfamily phodilinae, but it is rare and difficult to see. The rarest maybe the African Bay Owls (Phodilus progoginei), where had only been seen as dead specimen in year 1951, but later rediscovered in Zaire in may 1996.
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Subfamily Buboninae
Subfamily buboninae is the most common owl subfamily. It also known as the ‘typical owls’. This subfamily of owls is actually a huge mixture of owls, which include the sixteen genera. This subfamily include scops owls (Otus species), Eagle Owls (Bubo species), Fishing owls (Ketupa species) and also Pygmy Owls (Galucidium species). One of the distinctive of this subfamily is that most of the species have yellow eyes. This family actually covers the largest groups of owls and they are found just about everywhere.
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Subfamily Striginae
Subfamily striginae is mostly consist of medium to small owls. Some of the species which include in this family is Great Grey (Strix nebulosa) and also Asio species like Long-eared owl (Asio Otus) and short-eared Owl (Asio Flammeus). The last of this subfamily group is four species of tiny forest owls namely Tengmalms Owl (Aegolius Funereus), Boreal Owl, Saw-whet Owls and the Buff-fronted Owl. Some of the species from subfamily striginae are diurnal owl (active during daytime).
The three subfamily above is one of the classification that some will use to classified owls. However, there are some other method that sometimes use i.e. ear’s owls and non ear’s owls.