Bubo leucostictus
Silhouette: Steven Traver · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The akun eagle-owl (Ketupa leucosticta) is a species of owl in the family Strigidae and is native to the African tropical rainforest. The akun eagle-owl was formally described in 1855, by the German ornithologist Gustav Hartlaub from a specimen collected in Ghana. Hartlaub placed the owl in the genus Bubo and coined the binomial name Buco leucostictus. The specific epithet leucostictus is from Ancient Greek leukostiktos which means "white-speckled". The akun eagle-owl is now placed in the genus Ketupa that was introduced in 1831 by the French naturalist René Lesson. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The common English name, akun, is from the local name for the owl in southwest Cameroon. The local name "Akuñ" was recorded by the collector George Latimer Bates near Grand Batanga and published in 1904, by English ornithologist Richard Bowdler Sharpe.
The akun eagle-owl is one of the smaller eagle-owls, with 40–46 cm length; and body weight of 486–536 g for males and 524–607 g for females. It has predominantly dark to reddish-brown head and upperparts, with pale, dusky brown bars on the wings and back, and white markings around the...
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kakum National Park | 🇬🇭 Ghana |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Akun Eagle-Owl sighting in Kakum National Park on a given day, based on 53 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 155th most-seen of the 250 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.
January–April and June–November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Akun Eagle-Owl in Kakum National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May and December, the lowest months.
Between 8 and 11 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Akun Eagle-Owl sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 pm and 6 am: it is mostly seen at night.
Only Kakum National Park, in our data
Kakum National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Akun Eagle-Owl sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Akun Eagle-Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Kakum National Park (53 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.
