Maned Owl Jubula lettii Scientific name definitions

34–40 cm (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); 1 male 183 g (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Highly distinctive. Elongated crown and nape feathers forming brown and white “mane”, merging with long, bushy brown-and-white ear tufts (2 Demey, R. (2015). Little-known African bird: Maned Owl Jubula lettii—an elusive rainforest endemic. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 22(1): 86–88. Close ); rufous facial disc edged in brown, with contrasting white forehead, eyebrows and lores; mantle and back chestnut, scapulars with black-edged whitish outer webs; wing coverts brown-rufous with creamy and dark vermiculations; flight feathers and tail barred rufous and buff; throat white; upper breast light rufous, fading to buff or whitish on belly, with dusky brown streaks; tarsus feathered; irides deep yellow to orange-yellow; cere yellowish-green (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); bill ivory to pale yellow; toes yellow with some grey patches on upper surface (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Sexes similar, female darker and more heavily patterned. Juvenile head and neck almost white, rest washed buff with faint rufous bars.

Liberia, Ivory Coast and Ghana; and patchily from S Cameroon and N Gabon S to R Congo and E to NC & EC DRCongo (3 Mikkola, H. (2012). Owls of the World. A Photographic Guide. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Lowland rainforest and gallery forest, especially with abundant creepers; reportedly associated with old forest, but little known. Thought to prefer tall closed-canopy rainforest, rather than semi-evergreen, open-canopy forest; apparently has never been recorded outside of forested habitat (4 Butchart, S. H. M. (2007). Birds to find: a review of ‘lost’, obscure and poorly known African bird species. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 14(2):139–157. Close , 1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Often roosts in creepers.

Resident; presumed sedentary (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Little information. Insects such as grasshoppers and beetles possibly most important; the remains of a young bird were found in a juvenile owl (2 Demey, R. (2015). Little-known African bird: Maned Owl Jubula lettii—an elusive rainforest endemic. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 22(1): 86–88. Close ). Weak feet and bill suggest incapable of capturing larger vertebrate prey, but frequently mobbed by passerines, which might indicate birds are taken more often than previously appreciated. The stomach of the sole specimen from Ghana, taken 18 Feb 1934, contained vegetable matter that resembled “squashed green peas” (5 Bannerman, D. A. (1951). The Birds of Tropical West Africa: with Special Reference to those of The Gambia, Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and Nigeria. Vol. 8. The Crown Agents for the Colonies & Oliver and Boyd, London and Edinburgh, UK. Close ). Strictly nocturnal; emerges at dusk.

Unknown. Vocalizations described in a previous paper (6 Dowsett-Lemaire, F. (1992). On the vocal behaviour and habitat of the Maned Owl Jubula lettii in south-western Congo. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 112(4): 213-218. Close ) now thought to be based on misidentification of Scotopelia bouvieri (7 Dowsett-Lemaire, F. (1996). A comment on the voice and status of Vermiculated Fishing-Owl Scotopelia bouvieri and a correction to Dowsett-Lemaire (1992) on the Maned Owl Jubula lettii. Bulletin of the African Bird Club. 3(2): 134-135. Close , 1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ).

Virtually unstudied. Pair with full-grown young observed at Mt Nimba, in Liberia, in third week Feb; observations in DRCongo suggest laying during Mar–May; fledglings seen in late Dec and Jan in Cameroon and Gabon. Clutch size reported to be 3–4 eggs, incubation period c. 28 days, nestling period 33 days (1 König, C., F. Weick, and J.-H. Becking (2008). Owls of the World. Second Edition. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), but nest apparently undescribed (2 Demey, R. (2015). Little-known African bird: Maned Owl Jubula lettii—an elusive rainforest endemic. Bull. Afr. Bird Club. 22(1): 86–88. Close ), so unclear where these data were collected. No other details known.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Data Deficient. CITES II. Very poorly known; status difficult to assess owing to species’ secretive and nocturnal habits, and because of scant information on its biology. Currently known from only 14 sites (4 Butchart, S. H. M. (2007). Birds to find: a review of ‘lost’, obscure and poorly known African bird species. Bulletin of the African Bird Club 14(2):139–157. Close ). Reported as very scarce in Ghana (one record from 1934) (8 Borrow, N. and R. Demey (2010). Birds of Ghana. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), and rare in Liberia, but probably mainly overlooked; only few Cameroon records; no meaningful data from rest of range. Density estimated at one pair/1–1·5 km² of forest, so possibly more common than records suggest. Never recorded outside forest or forest clearings; possibly at some risk from habitat loss through harvesting of timber.