Otus

Scops owls are typical owls in family Strigidae belonging to the genus Otus and are restricted to the Old World. Otus is the largest genus of owls with 59 species. Scops owls are colored in various brownish hues, sometimes with a lighter underside and/or face, which helps to camouflage them against the bark of trees. Some are polymorphic, occurring in a greyish- and a reddish-brown morph. They are small and agile, with both sexes being compact in size and shape. Female scops owls are usually larger than males. For most of the 20th century, this genus included the American screech owls, which are now again separated in Megascops based on a range of behavioral, biogeographical, morphological and DNA sequence data. Taxonomy The genus Otus was introduced in 1769 by the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant for the Indian scops owl (O. bakkamoena). The name is derived from the Latin word and the Greek word ōtos meaning horned or eared owl (cf. οὖς, ὠτός, "ear"). The generic name Scops that was proposed by Marie Jules César Savigny in 1809 is a junior synonym and is derived from the Greek (skōps) meaning small kind of owl, Otus scops.