An owl endemic to Cebu Island in the Philippines. A 2012 species description treated the Cebu population as distinct based on vocal and morphological differences.
It has pale supercilia and a white throat patch bordered by dark plumage. The upperparts are barred; underpart pattern varies from fine barring or speckles to nearly unmarked.
A 2011 survey of the Cebu Ninox population, later named as this species, recorded it in forest interiors, edges and forest-plantation mosaics. Observed prey carried included rats, small birds, cicadas and crickets.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.