White-fronted Scops Owl

Open encyclopedia reference

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.

Wikipedia contributors, White-fronted scops owl; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:25:11.336821+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Otus sagittatus (Cassin, 1849)

Name authority

(Cassin, 1849)

Common name

White-fronted Scops Owl

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Strigiformes

Family

Strigidae

Genus

Otus

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderStrigiformes
10. familyStrigidae
11. subfamilyStriginae
12. genusOtus Pennant, 1769
13. speciesOtus sagittatus (Cassin, 1849)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Otus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 196 records assigned to Strigidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=555363 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:4B8JF. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.