Species

This taxon is Not Recognised as a species by BirdLife International.

Taxonomic source(s)
King, B. 2002. Species limits in the Brown Boobook Ninox scutula complex. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 122: 250-257.

Taxonomic note
Ninox scutulata (Sibley and Monroe 1990, 1993) was split into N. scutulata, N. randi and N. japonica by King (2002), but this treatment is not adopted by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group because although King (2002) provides good evidence of consistent vocal differences in three groups within the Ninox scutulata complex, he also shows there are no clear matching morphological differences. It is also hard to judge just how great are the vocal differences and to decide whether they represent more than dialect difference between resident and migratory populations of a single species. The BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group therefore feels that more confirmatory work is needed before a decision to go with King's arrangement can be taken.

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2013) Species factsheet: Ninox japonica. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/05/2013. Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2013) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/05/2013.

This information is based upon, and updates, the information published in BirdLife International (2000) Threatened birds of the world. Barcelona and Cambridge, UK: Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, BirdLife International (2004) Threatened birds of the world 2004 CD-ROM and BirdLife International (2008) Threatened birds of the world 2008 CD-ROM. These sources provide the information for species accounts for the birds on the IUCN Red List.

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