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Northern White-faced Owl (Ptilopsis leucotis)

Northern White-faced Owl

Ptilopsis leucotis

Least Concern

Overview

The northern white-faced owl (Ptilopsis leucotis) is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is currently listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Habitat

Found in a band across Africa between the Sahara and the Equator, its range includes Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Uganda.

Did you know?

When confronted by a much larger predator such as an eagle, the bird elongates its body and narrows its eyes to thin slits to camouflage itself like a broken tree branch. A member of this species named 'Popo-chan' famously demonstrated this concealing posture on a Japanese television show.

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