The tawny desert owl, once mistaken for another species of owl

Once mistaken for another species of owl, the golden-eyed "desert tawny owl" is now finally getting its due.

The Hume's owl or Hume's tawny owl (Strix butleri) is a species of owl. ... Its habitat is palm groves, desert, semi-desert and rocky ravines. 

In a new report, researchers examined the plumage and body shape of owl specimens from museums around the world that had previously been thought to be members of a species called Hume's owl. The researchers also analyzed the owls' mitochondrial DNA, and found it was about 10 percent different from that of the Hume's owl, which is properly known as species Strix butleri.

The tawny desert owl, once mistaken for another species of owl

"Hume had named his bird, and Tristram thought [his owl] was the same thing," Kirwan said.But coincidentally, another ornithologist of the time, named Henry Tristram, had already collected an owl with similar markings.

But then, more than a century later, a new look at the owls shook things up.

The renowned ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai visited the Natural History Museum in Tring, England, while working on a book in 1985. Shirihai noticed some of the Hume's owl specimens in England looked different from each other, and also different from the Hume's owls he had seen in Israeli museums and in the wild.

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