LC
African Scops-owl Otus senegalensis



Taxonomy

Taxonomic note
Otus senegalensis, O. feae, O. pamelae and O. socotranus (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were previously lumped as O. senegalensis. Before then, O. senegalensis, plus O. scops, O. sunia and O. alius (the latter three sensu del Hoyo and Collar 2014) were split following Dowsett and Forbes-Watson (1993), AOU (1998) and Rasmussen (1998). Prior to that, all these taxa had been lumped as O. scops following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993).

Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Critically Endangered Endangered Vulnerable
- - -

Red List history
Year Category Criteria
2024 Least Concern
2016 Least Concern
2014 Least Concern
2012 Not Recognised
2008 Not Recognised
2004 Not Recognised
2000 Not Recognised
1994 Not Recognised
1988 Not Recognised
Species attributes

Migratory status not a migrant Forest dependency medium
Land-mass type Average mass -
Range

Estimate Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident) 24,200,000 km2
Severely fragmented? no -
Population
Estimate Data quality Derivation Year of estimate
Population size unknown - - -
Population trend decreasing - suspected -
Generation length 2.55 years - - -

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be generally common throughout its range (del Hoyo et al. 1999). This species is considered to have a medium dependency on forest habitat, and tree cover is estimated to have declined by 6.4% within its mapped range over the past 10 years (Global Forest Watch 2022, using Hansen et al. [2013] data and methods disclosed therein). Therefore, as a precautionary measure, it is tentatively suspected that this loss of cover may have led to a decline of between 1-19% in the species' population size over the same time frame.

Trend justification:   .


Country/territory distribution
Country/Territory Presence Origin Resident Breeding visitor Non-breeding visitor Passage migrant
Angola extant native yes
Benin extant native yes
Botswana extant native yes
Burkina Faso extant native yes
Burundi extant native yes
Cameroon extant native yes
Central African Republic extant native yes
Chad extant native yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the extant native yes
Côte d'Ivoire extant native yes
Djibouti extant native yes
Equatorial Guinea extant native yes
Eritrea extant native yes
Eswatini extant native yes
Ethiopia extant native yes
Gambia extant native yes
Ghana extant native yes
Guinea extant native yes
Guinea-Bissau extant native yes
Kenya extant native yes
Liberia extant native yes
Malawi extant native yes
Mali extant native yes
Mauritania extant native yes
Mozambique extant native yes
Namibia extant native yes
Niger extant native yes
Nigeria extant native yes
Rwanda extant native yes
Senegal extant native yes
Sierra Leone extant native yes
Somalia extant native yes
South Africa extant native yes
South Sudan extant native yes
Sudan extant native
Tanzania extant native yes
Togo extant native yes
Uganda extant native yes
Zambia extant native yes
Zimbabwe extant native yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Country/Territory IBA Name

Habitats & altitude
Habitat (level 1) Habitat (level 2) Importance Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial Rural Gardens suitable resident
Artificial/Terrestrial Urban Areas suitable resident
Forest Subtropical/Tropical Dry suitable resident
Forest Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level suitable resident
Savanna Dry suitable resident
Shrubland Mediterranean-type Shrubby Vegetation suitable resident
Shrubland Subtropical/Tropical Moist suitable resident
Altitude 0 - 2000 m Occasional altitudinal limits  

Utilisation
Purpose Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture international

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: African Scops-owl Otus senegalensis. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/african-scops-owl-otus-senegalensis on 28/11/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 28/11/2024.