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Institut de recherche pour la conservation des zones humides méditerranéennes

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Titre :	Revised description of Pere David's Owl Strix davidi based on field observations in Central China
Auteurs :	Wolfgang Scherzinger, Auteur ; Yun Fang, Auteur ; Yue-Hua Sun, Auteur ; Siegfried Klaus, Auteur
Type de document :	Article
Dans :	Ornithologischer Anzeiger (53(1-2) DEC 2014)
Article en page(s) :	54-93
Résumé :	In autumn of 1869, Father A. David collected several owls in western Sichuan/China. Sharpe (1875) recognized a new species in one of these birds and named it Syrnium davidi. Since this time, only very few records and observations had been made, so that even recent publications had to hark back to original descriptions of the type from the Parish National-Museum, more than 100 years old. Because of the deficient quality of these sources, some noticeable discrepancies emerged in descriptions and depictions of Pere David's Owl in the literature, which also conflicted with our experiences and observations in the field.Following our detection of a small breeding population of Pere David's Owl in Lian Hua Shan Forest Reserve/Province of Gansu, more systematic field-studies of phenotype, of character of plumage, vocalization and breeding behaviour in this rare species became possible. Based on field observations in 1995-2013, protocols on broods in nest-boxes and photo-documents, we not only present a revised species-specific description of Strix davidi, but also compare its characters with the related Ural Owl, represented by eight of the currently accepted subspecies of Strix uralensis.Pere David's Owls show measurements of wing- and tail-length more nearly comparable with the largest Ural Owls of south-eastern Europe (Strix u. macroura) than with Ural Owls of east Asia (Strix. u. nikolskii, japonica, hondoensis, and fuscescens), which consistently look smaller and of less strong constitution.Most characters of adult plumage, which have been published as species-specific for Strix davidi, may also occur in certain local types or morphs of Ural Owl. A ring-shaped pattern in the facial-disc, reportedly characteristic of Pere David's Owl, was not found in individuals in the Lian Hua Shan Reserve. We suggest that descriptions of this character in the literature may be based on a confusion with the Himalayan Wood Owl (Strix nivicola [ma]), which was collected by A. David in the forests of Moupin/Sichuan at about the same time, and was mentioned by Sharpe (1875) together with the description of the type-specimen.This confusion became reinforced by ill defined naming, numerous homonyms and synonyms within the genera Ptynx, Syrnium, and Strix, which were used in parallel at that time. By comparing older illustrations, body measurements and original information on distribution etc., we discuss which owl species was originally collected by David near Beijing, and which species is depicted and described in David and Oustalet (1877), labelled as Ptynx fuscescens.The striking similarities of several details in general behaviour and especially in plumage patterns of Pere David's Owl to those of Ural Owls leave no doubt that these big wood-owls evolved in close relationship. Pere David's Owl was therefore classed as a Chinese subspecies of Strix uralensis in the older literature. In recognition of the long period of time that the owl has lived in total isolation in the mountain forests of Central China, the status of a discrete species Strix davidi now seems justified.

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