A team from DENR National Capital Region’s East Field Office (EFO) retrieved a juvenile Luzon Scops-Owl (Otus longicornis) from a netizen in Quezon City on Friday, 17 July 2020.
Acting on a message sent through the Facebook page of the DENR National Capital Region, the team safely retrieved the wild bird from the concerned netizen. The EFO endorsed the rescued owl to the Enforcement Division for temporary custody before its turn-over to the veterinarians of the Wildlife Rescue Center (WRC) at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center.
Measuring only 7 inches, the Luzon Scops Owl is one of the smallest scops owls in the Philippines. It is found only in the high elevation montane forests of Luzon, above 1000 meters, and overlaps with its bigger and more common cousin Philippine Scops Owl. (www.birdingphilippines.com)
The Luzon Scops-Owl is a forest-dwelling bird of prey endemic to the Philippines. It is listed under Near Threatened species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) because its population in the wild is “suspected to be undergoing moderately rapid decline owing to the extensive loss of lowland forests within its range” (www.birdlife.org/).
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