Otus

Flint, Peter, Whaley, David, Kirwan, Guy M., Charalambides, Melis, Schweizer, Manuel & Wink, Michael, 2015, Reprising the taxonomy of Cyprus Scops Owl Otus (scops) cyprius, a neglected island endemic, Zootaxa 4040 (3), pp. 301-316 : 312-313

Otus s. scops

# Otus s. scops _S_ France _10330 GCCCCTGACA # Otus s. scops _S_ France _10329.......... Otus s. pulchellus

# Otus s. pulchellus _ Mongolia _23809.......... Otus s. cycladum

# Otus s. cycladum _ Israel _6092 C..... C... # Otus s. cycladum _Leros_GR.3552........ T G # Otus s. cycladum _ Israel _6091......... G # Otus s. cycladum _ Egypt _65029..... C... G Otus (s.) cyprius

# Otus s. cyprius _ Cyprus _20881.. T ....... # Otus s. cyprius _ Cyprus _75538.. T ....... # Otus s. cyprius _ Cyprus _75209.. T .......

Breeding season, distribution, habitat and density. The breeding season of cyprius, with eggs Apr–May and chicks late Apr–Jul ( Flint & Stewart 1992 and subsequent Cyprus Bird Reports) is several weeks earlier than in Turkey ( Kirwan et al. 2008). Breeding birds are common in towns, villages, lightly wooded areas, and open pine Pinus brutia forest to 1,900 m ( Flint & Stewart 1992 and subsequent Cyprus Bird Reports; Ieronymidou 2008; Pomeroy & Walsh 2013; J. Honold pers. comm.). Habitats of cyprius thus appear generally similar to those of scops except that cyprius is common in pine forest, whereas scops (except O. s. pulchellus) infrequently inhabits conifers ( Cramp 1985).

The density of singing male cyprius is high: 3–4 (exceptionally 8–10, Charalambides & Charalambides 1990) are often heard from one point simultaneously in favoured areas, and counts in and around villages often involve 10–12, exceptionally 20 (e.g. Charalambides & Charalambides 1983; Sanders 2000; Gordon et al. 2004; Richardson et al. 2012; C. Richardson pers. comm.). High breeding densities have been recorded in scops ( Cramp 1985) , but those for cyprius seem to be usually greater, apparently much more so than on Corsica ( Thibault & Bonaccorsi 1999). The estimated breeding population of cyprius of 10,000–20,000 pairs ( BirdLife International 2004) or 5,000–15,000 pairs (BirdLife Cyprus 2013 estimate) is relatively high compared to those in the much larger nearby countries of Greece and Turkey ( BirdLife International 2004), suggesting that mean density on Cyprus is higher. However, estimates of densities of singing male cyprius across a range of habitats are required to enable more accurate comparisons.