Loch Lomond Birds of Prey - Indian Eagle Owl

A medium to large owl with orange eyes and prominent “ear tufts”. Colouring is a tawny-buff colour mottled with black, paler below with black steaks. The facial disc is pale fawn to buff colour, with a prominent blackish rim. The eyebrows start out whitish at the centre of the face, and change to a blackish line at a point just above the centre of each eye, and then continue up to the dark ear tufts.

Found in the Indian sub-continent to the Himalayas, also west Myanmar. Natural habitat is rocky hills, wooded scrub, ravines, rocky semi-desert and old mango orchards.

Indian Eagle Owls usually hunt from a perch, but will also make low foraging flights to dive on prey. They primarily hunt rats and mice, but will also take birds up to the size of peafowl. They will also eat reptiles, frogs, crabs and large insects.