ML615106943

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Observation details

!!!***Mega**!!! With KD. Initially heard close to the road singing constantly 30mins or so before sundown (where at the point of first hearing the bird we were unsure what the it actually was (!) - ideas ranging from a wacky Congo Serpent Eagle, or a bizarre variant of Black-casqued Hornbill). At this point the bird sang some ~300m away (difficult to judge distance) to the N of the logging road. After recording the call, we continued on down the road, wondering *what* it was. On retracing our steps after continuing another 1/2 a km or so (finding no nightjars..), the bird was still calling - now after sundown. Curiosity further building we made more recordings, and mused about Owls now that it was way past sundown and other suggestions clearly incorrect. On checking the recordings we had to hand, it was a perfect match to the couple of recordings of (presumed..) Shelley's EO that are available. Excitement building, we decided to position ourselves adjacent to a large tree to which the bird would certainly fly to if it responded to playback. (This now all done by the very bright moonlight on a still and cloudless night). In position, we played the call from a speaker positioned ~10m away, and within 30s or so a massive Owl flew (perfectly to plan..) into the emergent tree adjacent to the road. After about a minute the bird began vocalising again and we quickly located it by torchlight perched on a large bough beneath the canopy. Even via torchlight through bins the pale bill was especially obvious, as well as deeply barred (dark) underparts. Ear tufts not obviously extended for much of the time we watched the bird, although when it turned side on they were evident. We observed the bird for some 10mins or so, taking some (very poor..) pictures with horrendously slow shutter speeds. Eventually the bird flew off back in the direction in which it came from, continuing to vocalise as we continued back along the road in the moonlight (now more or less speechless at what we had just witnessed).. A significant recent record of arguably one of the most coveted and enigmatic birds of Guinea-Congolian forests, following a particularly well publicised individual seen in Atewa (Ghana) in 2021 and also a first record for Equatorial Guinea. It seems implausible that, given the distinctive call, Shelley's can have been overlooked in various places that fieldworkers have spent time, so either the species is both extremely rare and lives at low density, or vocalises infrequently - or both..

Technical information

Model

Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Lens

EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM

ISO

6400

Focal length

400 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/5.6

Shutter speed

1/15 sec

Dimensions

5000 pixels x 3901 pixels

Original file size

16.37 MB