Thanks for the clarification guys. I was told this was the 1st by few people, so I went by that.

Bay Owls have been photographed earlier in India. But the bird was indeed rediscovered only in 1992 at Top Slip. I think Kalyan made an error there

- Suraj, Tirupur.

Hi Kalyan, this is Pritam. Nice photos. I just read Yathin’s report too. You sure had an awesome vacation.

Photographic records of the Bay Owl from India have been around for quite a while now. This bird is not the rarest owl in the foothill forests along the Assam-Arunachal border and I have spotted one at Nameri. There is a definite photographic record of an injured Bay Owl from just outside Kaziranga. The bird dropped onto a village courtyard after a nasty crow injured it in flight. It was rescued and photographed (this happened a few years ago). I also know that bay owls have been regularly spotted by quite a few foreign tourist groups in North Bengal. I wouldnt bet that none of those groups photographed it.

While the population of this owl in India is quite fragmented and is found locally in pockets, it has a wide range of distribution outside India (and photographic records are proportionately common outiside India). Nevertheless, spotting it and shooting it in India is rare indeed. However, I think the cooperative sri-lanka frogmouth was an even bigger catch. Frogmouths in general are almost impossible to spot (though afaik, they are not endangered). Same applies to all Nightjars. Not the rarest in terms of population but very rare in terms of spotting records.

~Pritam Baruah.

I’m really surprised you remember my face Yeah I’ve had that link almost since I started blogging Wanted all my friends to visit your journal

Hi deepthi,
I do remember your face from college Glad you liked the pictures and amazed to see the link to my site on your blog.

heh, thanks for the advice big mamma :p