The Spot-Bellied Eagle Owl Known As The Devil Bird Of Sri Lanka, With Hearts In Its Feathers

When We started looking for information about the spot-bellied eagle owl, which is also called the forest eagle owl, We kept seeing it described as having a “formidable appearance.” Which, okay, sure, they are a large bird of prey and that’s going to be a little off-putting for anyone upon first seeing them, but “formidable” wouldn’t be the first adjective I’d choose to describe them.

The spot-bellied eagle-owl (Bubo nipalensis), also known as the forest eagle-owl is a large bird of prey with a formidable appearance. It is a forest-inhabiting species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia. This species is considered part of a superspecies with the barred eagle-owl (Bubo sumatranus), which looks quite similar but is allopatric in distribution, replacing the larger spot-bellied species in the southern end of the Malay Peninsula and the larger island in Southeast Asia extending down to Borneo.