Tawny Owl - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 under its current scientific name. The binomial derives from Greek strix "owl" and Italian allocco, "Tawny Owl" (from Latin ulucus "screech-owl").

The Tawny Owl is a member of the wood-owl genus Strix, part of the typical owl family Strigidae, which contains all species of owl other than the barn owls. Within its genus, the Tawny's closest relatives are Hume's Owl, Strix butleri, (formerly considered to be conspecific), the Himalayan Owl, Strix nivicolum, (sometimes considered conspecific), its larger northern neighbour, the Ural Owl, S. uralensis, and the North American Barred Owl, S. varia. The Early–Middle Pleistocene Strix intermedia is sometimes considered a paleosubspecies of the Tawny Owl, which would make it that species' immediate ancestor.

The Tawny Owl subspecies are often poorly differentiated, and may be at a flexible stage of subspecies formation with features related to the ambient temperature, the colour tone of the local habitat, and the size of available prey. Consequently, various authors have historically described between 10 and 15 subspecies. The currently recognised subspecies are listed below.