Description Laughing owl

s. a. albifacies john gerrard keulemans, drawn after living specimens owned walther rothschild

the laughing owl s plumage yellowish-brown striped dark brown. there white straps on scapulars, , hind neck. mantle feathers edged white. wings , tail had light brown bars. tarsus had yellowish reddish-buff feathers. facial disc white behind , below eyes, fading grey brown stripes towards centre. birds more rufous, brown facial disk; @ first attributed subspecific differences, better related individual variation. there indications males more of richly coloured morph (e.g. linz specimen oÖlm 1941/433). eyes dark orange. length 35.5–40 cm (14-15.7 ) , wing length 26.4 cm (10.4 ), males being smaller females. weight around 600 grams.

vocalisations

the call of laughing owl has been described loud cry made of series of dismal shrieks repeated . species given name because of sound. other descriptions of call were: peculiar barking noise ... barking of young dog ; precisely same 2 men cooeying each other distance ; melancholy hooting note , or high-pitched chattering, heard when birds on wing , on dark , drizzly nights or preceding rain. various whistling, chuckling , mewing notes observed captive bird.

buller (1905) mentions testimony of correspondent claimed laughing owls attracted accordion play. given recorded vocalizations effective means attract owls, , given similarity of distant accordion s tune call of laughing owl reported, apparent method might have worked.