A serial murderer of rats, tiny owl escaped the birding police in Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: A small, secretive species, the Oriental Scops-owl (OSO), would chuckle to itself having evaded the scrutiny of the growing tribe of Tricity birders, who mostly indulged in day-time searches.
Active in the darkness, OSO specimens acquire plumages that vary from brown to rufous to grey so as to match closely with the bark colour.
This owl can also change shape effortlessly during the day, from a round egg to one resembling an elongated branch and become one with the thick foliage.
Coupled with a sphinx-like stillness and silence maintained during the day, the OSO manages to evade the hawkish eyes of birders on the hunt and really keen to add a rare owl to their bucket lists.
It took an injured wing for the OSO to finally come to the notice of the Tricity’s birding community. It so happened that an injured specimen was found on a Rajpura rooftop. Thus ended the owl’s missing presence from the greater Chandigarh region’s fancied avian checklist.
The OSO could have been here all this time but remained “Nature's secret”, like the murders indulged by serial killers that went unsolved for decades. In this case, it was a serial killer ridding us of rats!
With haunting yellow eyes and a gorgeous rufous plumage, the injured owl was brought to the notice of Mohali-based birder, Prof Gurpartap Singh, who identified it as an OSO. “There is no previous published record from Punjab for this species.
The closest record is from near Solan, at a distance of 65 km, as the crow flies. However, the Xeno-Canto distribution map shows the species in parts of Punjab (including Rajpura). It is likely this species may be found in suitable habitat in northern and eastern parts of Punjab,” Prof Singh told this writer.
The injured OSO, which died later, also makes it the first record for the Inter-State Capital Region. “The ISCR is an area encompassing 50 km as crow flies from centre of Chandigarh. Rajpura would fall in it,” said member of Punjab and Chandigarh State Wildlife Advisory Boards and vice-president of Chandigarh Bird Club, Narbir S Kahlon,