The Fascination & Peril Of Owls In India

Pic : 1 = Mottled Wood Owl ; Tadoba National Park | Pic : 2 = Tawnie Fish Owl ; Sattal | Pics : 3 - 4 = Indian Scops Owl ; Bandhavgarh National Park | Pics 5 - 7 = Spotted Owlet ; Ranthambore National Park & Pondicherry | Pic : 8 = Barn Owls ; South Andaman | Pics : 9 - 10 = Walden's Scops Owl ; South Andaman | Pics : 11 - 12 = Andaman Boobook ; South Andaman | Pics : 13 -14 = Hume's Boobook ; South Andaman | Pics : 15 - 16 = Andaman Scops Owl ; South Andaman

Big yellow eyes which are fascinating for some like me and scary for others like my wife. That’s what we notice the most about Owls and of course, the eyes are huge. It’s those huge eyes that gives them a unique, one of a kind character. That, and the 360 head turn that freaks us all out and makes us hope to catch it happening. The fascination and fright is pretty much universal and what that leads to is legend and sadly also baseless superstition to the peril of the poor creatures. Remember what people do to poor Rollers cause of their supposed association with Gods? ( Ref : From Godliness To Emptiness” ) Well, it’s horrible that some people will use the fascination of an innocent yet different creature and turn it into a business plan of murder but that’s just how it is sadly for the owls of India. But, let’s start at the start.

Owls have huge eyes and those eyes are set in front of their faces like ours giving them binocular vision unlike prey which have eyes on the side of their heads which gives them wide angle vision to spot predators. Owls see pretty far and their eyes dilate a lot giving them excellent night vision. The trade off however is that they don’t see too well up close and they have to squint during the day ( Pics : 1 – 6 ). In fact they don’t move much during the day at all and make excellent models for a single picture at daytime. These guys are tailored for the night and even their flight is silent to facilitate night predation as I wrote in “See you; See me”.

I’ve seen Spotted Owlets ( Pics : 5 – 7 ) pretty much all around the country from Assam to Ranthambore, to Pondicherry and in Kabini. They’re often seen in pairs and it’s a pretty cute sight seeing them cozied up in a tree. These guys are hoarders and they do it in the trees which they inhabit. They hunt insects, rodents and small birds and swallow their prey whole unlike some other owls that kill and take nibbles. The Andaman Scops Owl ( Pics : 15 – 16 ) is a sub species of the Indian Scops Owl ( Pics : 3 – 4 ) and I’ve written about em in “See You ; See Me.” The Walden’s Scops Owl ( Pics : 9 – 10 ) is a sub species of the Oriental Scops Owl and I wrote about these guys in “Judgemental Much ?”. I also encountered the Hume’s Boobook ( Pics : 13 - 14 ) and the Andaman Boobook ( Pics : 11 - 12 ) in South Andaman in 2024 and wrote about em in “The Brownest Boobook Of Em All” and “Golden Eyes & Feathers” respectively. Now I thought that these hawk Owls were related to the Brown Boobook commonly seen in the Indian mainland but that’s not the case at all apparently. These two are totally distinct cousins.

I saw the Mottled Wood Owl in Tadoba ( Pic : 1 ). These guys are coloured pretty distinctly from the others that I’d seen and my guy pretty much was doing the owl whole day, same pose thing. These guys do a call that’s an antiphonal duet of the male and female. The male calls once or twice, followed by the female’s shorter call. Their call is considered to be a bad omen to some in Kerela. In Malayam, this species is called “The Fowl Of Death”. I’m not even gonna try to explain that. The Tawnie Fish Owl, you see here ( Pic : 2 ) was one of a pair in Sattal. Their colour was a complete surprise for me again. They’d sit around a bridge often in different perches during my time there. What’s interesting about these guys is that they hunt pretty much like fish eagles, ospreys, etc and are known to do it at dusk. They go after fish usually and also toads, lizards, frogs and rats.

There are 36 species of owls in India so I have long way to go in seeing them all I think but what all of those species have in common is that they are seen to be auspicious in Indian mythology as Godess Lakshmi rides owls. Lakshmi is the Goddess of wealth you see and guess what people do to be close to the Goddess of the most desired? They trap her ride man ! Someone convinced these Einsteins that trapping the Goddess’s ride will ensure a visit by the Goddess on Lakshmi Puja which coincides with Diwali. Really Son? Is that how your uncle told you he got rich ? And you believed him ? How come none of these scientists go tiger chasing during Durga puja then? Maa Durga is a lot more powerful but wait, so’s the Tiger I guess huh? The fact that owls are different and seem fantastical has been used through the centuries by quacks in India who prescribe their body parts for rubbish cures from anything to everything that I’m not even going to bother listing out. The fact that it was from an owl just added to the magic of the cure I guess and no one bothered to ask how and why. The same attributes have made them seem scary and evil and I’m not even bothering to list out the crazy stories Humans have spun around these beautiful creatures cause I like owls a lot and these stories just make me angry.

Poor guys are just nocturnal and damn good at their job which is fending for themselves and their families. They’re hard workers like most successful species and their gifts like the capabilities of silent flight and night vision are a result of evolution to accommodate their hunting style. If anything owls are cute and pretty fun characters when you’re in close proximity to them especially at night. If only people would bother to question and observe before believing what they hear blindly. Sometimes, just sometimes I feel that our knowledge of language can be as much a curse as it is a gift. Just look at all the misinformation we are victims to. It’s sad and more so for the actual victims down the chain be it other people or a poor owl who didn’t ever do anything except try to survive. Sad man. Sad and Evil.