Sri Lanka Bay-Owl

Small owl with immense dark eyes. Uncommon, strictly nocturnal, and very rarely seen. Listen for its odd squeaky whistles, “weeYEWWaweew,” delivered in series. Unmistakable if seen well: note heart-shaped face, richly-colored warm brown upperparts, and relatively clean underparts. A species of dense wet forests with thick undergrowth from lowlands up into hilly and montane areas.

The Sri Lanka Bay-Owl primarily inhabits the wet evergreen and mixed evergreen-deciduous forests of Sri Lanka, including mangroves, partially harvested forests, and areas with dense undergrowth, usually found from sea level to around 1100 meters in elevation; it is particularly associated with the dense rainforests of the island, like the Sinharaja Forest Reserve.

The Sri Lanka Bay-Owl primarily feeds on a diet consisting of small rodents (like mice and rats), bats, birds, lizards, frogs, large insects such as beetles and grasshoppers, all of which it hunts nocturnally from a perch within the dense forest canopy.