Otus sagittatus
Silhouette: Armelle Ansart (photograph), Maxime Dahirel (digitisation) · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~70%
The white-fronted scops owl (Otus sagittatus) is a small Asian owl in the family Strigidae. It has a declining population about which little is known, and is dependent on lowland and foothill forests which are rapidly being destroyed. This species of owl is considered vulnerable and has a population of about 2,500–10,000. It is found in the west of Thailand and also in peninsular Malaysia. Its range covers 149,000 km2 (58,000 sq mi) of forest at altitudes of 0–700 m (0–2,300 ft) above sea-level.
The white-fronted scops owl was described by the American ornithologist John Cassin in 1849 and given the binomial name Ephialtes sagittatus. The species is monotypic. This kind of owl has two modes of defense. The first is that it can puff up its feathers to triple its body size. The second is that it can stretch its body upwards and turn its head at an angle in the direction of the predator that it is hiding from, reducing visibility.
White-fronted Scops Owl at OwlPages.com BirdLife species factsheet for Otus sagittatus "Otus sagittatus". Avibase. "White-fronted scops owl media". Internet Bird Collection. Interactive range map of Otus sagittatus at IUCN... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kaeng Krachan National Park | 🇹🇭 Thailand |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-fronted Scops-Owl sighting in Kaeng Krachan National Park on a given day, based on 655 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 95th most-seen of the 360 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 70%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November to March
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a White-fronted Scops-Owl in Kaeng Krachan National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August and October, the lowest months. Those are among Kaeng Krachan National Park's driest months, with about 55 mm of rain a month against 260 mm in September.
Between 5 and 8 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most White-fronted Scops-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.
Only Kaeng Krachan National Park, in our data
Kaeng Krachan National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate White-fronted Scops-Owl sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the White-fronted Scops-Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Kaeng Krachan National Park (655 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.
