A small owl that breeds in deep forest and hunts insects from dusk into the night.
The grey-brown body has intricate markings, yellow eyes and small ear tufts. Some individuals are reddish brown.
Oriental Scops Owls used three kinds of nesting sites in a two-year South Korean study: holes made by woodpeckers, natural tree cavities, and wooden nest boxes. Of 13 nests monitored in 2011–12, six were in woodpecker holes, five in natural cavities, and two in boxes. Across the study, hatching success was 91.4%, fledging success 83.0%, and breeding success 75.9%. Both wooden boxes monitored in the study had complete hatching and fledging.
Falling was the most common recorded cause of breeding failure at 57.1%, followed by abandonment at 28.6%; hatching failure and other or unknown causes each accounted for 7.1%. Natural tree holes had longer and wider entrances and greater depth on average than woodpecker holes.
IUCN Red List · Least Concern (LC) · Global species-level assessment
BirdLife International’s 2021 global IUCN assessment lists the Oriental Scops Owl as Least Concern (LC), with a stable population trend. The number of mature individuals has not been quantified. The assessment cites its very large range and the absence of evidence for significant decline as reasons it does not meet threatened thresholds. This is a global species assessment; the South Korean nesting study examined 13 nests and does not estimate population trend.