page_title: Spot-bellied eagle-owl
section_title: Breeding
hierarchical_section_title: Spot-bellied eagle-owl / Behavior / Breeding
caption_attribution_description: English: The spot-bellied eagle-owl, also known as the forest eagle-owl (Bubo nipalensis) is a large bird of prey with a formidable appearance. It is a forest-inhabiting species found in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asia
context_page_description: The spot-bellied eagle-owl, 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, 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.
context_section_description: This species' nesting season is from December to March, however, an egg has been recorded as late as June in Cachar. Most nesting sites are in large, spacious tree hollows. Alternately, they use abandoned stick nests made by other large birds, in many cases those previously built by eagles, vultures or kites. They've additionally been recorded as nesting in caves and sheltered fissures of rock walls. In this species, only one egg has ever been recorded per clutch and this is only one of three amongst all owl species (besides the buffy fish owl (Bubo flavipes) and the barred eagle-owl) where this is known to be the case. The egg is white and round ovoid shape with a smooth surface, averaging 61.2 mm × 49.9 mm (2.41 in × 1.96 in) in size and are thus around the same size as the eggs of the largest living owls, the Eurasian eagle-owl and Blakiston's fish owl (Bubo blakistoni). It has been reported that both sexes engage in incubation but this may not be the case (male owls generally do little to no incubating in eagle-owls), with the male more likely temporarily covering the eggs while the female flies off for a short period. Few further details are known of their breeding biology, including the brooding and fledging stages due to this species reportedly being very fierce and aggressive in defence of their nests. Anecdotes have claimed that some rather serious injuries have been incurred in the process of approaching spot-bellied eagle-owl nests, thus caution and distance from active nests is recommended.
caption: A young spot-bellied eagle-owl, which tend to be paler than adults.
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