Forest Owlet

Athene blewitti (Hume, 1873)

Forest Owlet Athene blewitti is an owl of the forests of central India, where it breeds in the Oriental Region. It belongs to the family Strigidae and was described by Hume in 1873. The species was not seen after 1884 and was long treated as extinct before its rediscovery in 1997 by Pamela Rasmussen. Later work showed that the locality on the label of the last collected specimen was false, after the specimen had been stolen from the British Museum and relabelled.

Order

Strigiformes

Family

Strigidae — Owls

Breeding range

Oriental Region: c India