Strix ocellata
Silhouette: Sharon Wegner-Larsen · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The mottled wood owl (Strix ocellata) is a species of large owl found in India and Nepal. They are found in gardens and thin deciduous forests adjacent to dry thorn forests or farmland. They are easily detected by their distinctive tremulous, eerie calls at dawn and dusk. The characteristic call is a duet of the male and female, while other notes include a low hoot and a screech. Their large size, lack of "ear" tufts and the concentric barring on the face make them easy to identify.
This large owl lacks ear tufts and is mottled and vermiculated in reddish brown and white. The face disc is marked with fine concentric black and white barring. The sexes are alike. The chin is white. The eyelid is orange, and the iris is dark brown. The tail is barred narrowly in brown and black. The concentric barring on the face and mottled crown separate it from the brown wood owl in southern India.
There are three subspecies recognized and there are no sharp demarcations in their distributions. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gir National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 4 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 6 | Nagarhole National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nehru Zoological Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Mysore Zoo | 🇮🇳 India |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Mottled Wood Owl sighting in Bandhavgarh National Park on a given day, based on 114 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 115th most-seen of the 241 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Mottled Wood Owl in Bandhavgarh National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April and June–July, the lowest months. That is one of Bandhavgarh National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 400 mm in August.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Mottled Wood Owl sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Among the best
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Mottled Wood Owl sightings, Bandhavgarh National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Gir National Park (India, about 10%).
Same family: Strigidae
The closest relatives of the Mottled Wood Owl that you can see in Bandhavgarh National Park (family Strigidae, Typical Owls) are Jungle Owlet (about 50%), Spotted Owlet (about 20%) and Brown Fish-Owl (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Mottled Wood Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Bandhavgarh National Park (114 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
