Eastern Grass Owl

Eastern Graseule (Tyto longimembris )

The Eastern Graseule (Tyto longimembris ) is a species from the genus of barn owls (Tyto ). The species is widespread in different subspecies over parts of Africa, Asia and Australia.

Features

The legs of all grass owls are significantly longer than the other barn owl species, which gives them the scientific name = " longimembris " " long-limbed " earned. The African Grass Owls have a reddish brown back feathers, which are compared to the indoaustralischen any shares of yellow, the middle tail feathers are with them also uniformly brown. Otherwise, the different subspecies differ in size and coloring.

Way of life

The name derives from the nature of their life in the grass and steppe areas of their range. They live on the ground and also breed there. During the day the animals hide in tufts of grass. They live mainly on small mammals such as mice and rats, and various shrews.

Subspecies

The African Grass Owls are mainly represented by the subspecies T. L. punctata in the areas of East, Southeast and Southwest Africa. Other subspecies are T. l libratus in western Kenya, T. L. cameroonensis in Cameroon and T. l damarensis in northern Namibia.

The Asian forms can be found on the so-called "Prairie Road" from India to parts of China, Taiwan, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Flores, New Caledonia, Australia, New Guinea and Fiji. In this example, the subspecies T. l papuensis lives in mountainous grassland of Southeastern New Guinea at altitudes of 5000-6000 meters. In Southeast China, T. L. chinensis is a striking pink veil and on Taiwan T. l pithecops. Other Asian forms are T. l melli on the Asian mainland, T. L. amauronata of the island of Luzon (Philippines) and T. l Baliem of West Irian (New Guinea ). The nominate T. l longimembris is found over a large area of South India to eastern Australia and the Fiji Islands.