Luzon Highland Scops-owl (Otus longicornis) - BirdLife species factsheet

Luzon Highland Scops-owl Otus longicornis

Current view: Data table and detailed info

Taxonomy

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
2023	Least Concern
2016	Near Threatened	A2c+3c+4c
2012	Near Threatened	A2c+3c+4c
2008	Near Threatened	A2c; A3c; A4c
2004	Near Threatened
2000	Lower Risk/Near Threatened
1996	Vulnerable
1994	Vulnerable
1988	Near Threatened

Species attributes

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	high
Land-mass type	shelf island	Average mass	-

Range

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	114,000 km²	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

Population

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	poor	suspected	2016-2026
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-5%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-5%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	1-5%	-	-	-
Generation length	2.7 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	6-20	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: The global population size has not been quantified. It is typically locally distributed and described as uncommon (König et al. 1999, Allen 2020), however citizen science data (eBird 2023) reveal it to be rather common where survey effort overlaps with the correct elevation at night. Given that approximately 12,000 km² of forest lies in its mapped range, the population size is therefore not believed to be especially small, and there is relatively high certainty that it exceeds 10,000 mature individuals.

Trend justification: The only acting threat to this species is habitat loss, caused principally by shifting agriculture and degradation at the lowest elevations of its range. Remote sensing data reveal the rate of loss to be very slow, equivalent to 1-3% of the mapped range being lost in the past ten years (2012-2022) (Global Forest Watch 2023, based on data from Hansen et al. [2013] and methods disclosed therein). It is plausible that this rate is an overestimate of population declines, since most of these losses are at the lowest elevation limit of this species, where the species may reasonably be expected to be less common than at higher elevations. Precautionarily, the trend is suspected to be declining at an ongoing rate of 1-5% over ten years.

Country/territory distribution

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Philippines	extant	native	yes

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Philippines	Angat watershed
Philippines	Bataan Natural Park and Subic Bay Forest Reserve
Philippines	Kalbario-Patapat National Park
Philippines	Mount Isarog National Park
Philippines	Mount Pulag National Park
Philippines	Northern Sierra Madre Natural Park
Philippines	Peñablanca Protected Landscape and Seascape

Habitats & altitude

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	major	resident
Altitude	1000 - 2300 m	Occasional altitudinal limits	(min) 360 m

Threats & impact

Threat (level 1)

Threat (level 2)

Impact and Stresses

Agriculture & aquaculture

Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Shifting agriculture

Timing

Scope

Severity

Impact

Ongoing

Minority (<50%)

Negligible declines

Low Impact: 4

Stresses
Ecosystem degradation