Appearance:

Unmistakable. Grey, cliff-climbing bird with long, thin and curved bill. Wings with colourful pattern in carmine red, black and white spots. Habitually flicks wings when foraging (see videolink below), but still hard to spot when not flying. Flight jerky and butterfly-like, and also recalls Hoopoe. Wings appear dark from below, except for white pearls on primaries. Male with blackish throat in breeding season.

Sound:

Alarm call a thin trilling "vuiirrrrrrr". Flight call one or several soft whistles, often with (very) short trill as attack or tail. Song variable in length, but main characteristic a sequence of 4-6 long, ascending whistles with timbre recalling whistling kettle. More complex and varied phrases are mixed with the long whistles. Both male and female sings.

Song:

Distribution:

Xeno-canto: map

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC

CC-sound:Philippe Legay, Licence,Link.

CC-photo:gilgit2, Licence,Link.

Appearance:

Like a pale, giant Tawny Owl. Yellow bill, long, evenly barred, tail. Eyes dark. Facial disks pale, unmarked and almost fused, lacking the dividing wedge of Tawny Owl. In flight, note lack of pale base of primaries and much slower wing-beats than Tawny. Mild facial expression, but very aggressive at breeding ground.

Sound:

Song: 6 -10 evenly spaced "ho"'s, starting silently and gradually rising in volume and pitch. Also an accented "ho-ho, ho-ho-it, ho-ho", three middle notes ascending and the two notes before and after descending. A variety of barking social sounds.

Song:

Distribution:

Wikipedia: map (se also Xeno-canto below)

Ecology:

Birdlife ecology

Links:

Observation.org Latest observations

Video IBC

Image search Flickr NB! May give other species

Sound search at Xeno-canto

Featherbase

CC