• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Climate Change maps
• Reference and further resources

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.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	C2a(i)

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2018	Vulnerable	C2a(i)
2016	Near Threatened	C1
2012	Near Threatened	C1
2008	Near Threatened	C1
2004	Near Threatened
2000	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1994	Lower Risk/Least Concern
1988	Lower Risk/Least Concern

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

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	3,450,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	1500-7000 mature individuals	poor	suspected	2007
Population trend	decreasing	-	inferred	-
Generation length	11.6 years	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: This species may require large areas of good quality habitat and occur at low densities (H. Rainey in litt. 2018). Thus it may have a small population, possibly below 10,000 individuals. It is placed in the band 2,500-9,999 individuals, equating to 1,667-6,666 mature individuals, rounded here to 1,500-7,000 mature individuals, with no subpopulation expected to contain >1,000 mature individuals.

Trend justification: The population is inferred to be declining owing to forest clearance within parts of its range. Deforestation analysis by Tracewski et al. (2016) estimated an annual decline in forest cover within this species’s range to be c.0.2% between 2000 and 2012, which would roughly equate to a decline of 6.4% over three generations (c.35 years). However, the extended anthropogenic impacts on the species, e.g. loss of prey populations due to hunting may be contributing to even higher declines (H. Rainey in litt. 2018). Therefore, while we may be confident in inferring a continuing decline in this species, the rate at which it is declining is uncertain.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Cameroon	extant	native	yes
Congo	extant	native	yes
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	extant	native	yes
Côte d'Ivoire	extant	native	yes
Gabon	extant	native	yes
Ghana	extant	native	yes
Liberia	extant	native	yes
Sierra Leone	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name
Congo	Dimonika Biosphere Reserve
Congo, The Democratic Republic of the	Okapi Faunal Reserve
Côte d'Ivoire	Mount Nimba Strict Nature Reserve
Côte d'Ivoire	Parc National de Taï et Réserve de faune du N'Zo
Gabon	Ipassa Strict Nature Reserve
Liberia	Lofa-Gola-Mano Complex
Liberia	Nimba mountains
Liberia	Zwedru
Sierra Leone	Gola Forests

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Small-holder farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Unintentional effects (species is not the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Competition
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Medium Impact: 6
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Shelley's Eagle-owl Bubo shelleyi. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/shelleys-eagle-owl-bubo-shelleyi on 22/11/2024.
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 22/11/2024.