&lt;div class=&quot;track&quot;&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;&quot; src=&quot;http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.22.2/16435?ns=guardian&amp;pageName=Mystery+bird%3A+Malay+eagle-owl%2C+Bubo+sumatranus+%7C+%40GrrlScientist+%7C+Punctu%3AArticle%3A1646712&amp;ch=Science&amp;c3=GU.co.uk&amp;c4=Science&amp;c5=Not+commercially+useful&amp;c6=GrrlScientist&amp;c7=11-Oct-14&amp;c8=1646712&amp;c9=Article&amp;c10=Blogpost&amp;c11=Science&amp;c13=&amp;c25=Punctuated+Equilibrium+by+GrrlScientist&amp;c30=content&amp;h2=GU%2FScience%2Fblog%2FGrrlScientist&quot; width=&quot;1&quot; height=&quot;1&quot; /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;standfirst&quot;&gt;This southeast Asian mystery bird is part of a family whose taxonomic relationships are still unresolved&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;   &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Malay eagle-owl, &lt;em&gt;Bubo sumatranus&lt;/em&gt; (formerly, &lt;em&gt;Bubo sumatrana&lt;/em&gt;; protonym, &lt;em&gt;Strix Sumatrana&lt;/em&gt;), also known as the Malaysian eagle-owl, the Oriental eagle-owl, or as the barred eagle-owl, photographed at &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Negara&quot;&gt;Taman Negara&lt;/a&gt;, Malaysia. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Image: &lt;a href=&quot;http://kadambarid.in/&quot;&gt;Kadambari Devarajan&lt;/a&gt;, June 2011 (with permission) [&lt;a href=&quot;http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6111/6237944868_770288c614_b.jpg&quot; width=&quot;800&quot; height=&quot;529&quot;&gt;velociraptorize&lt;/a&gt;].&lt;br /&gt;Sony A550, Sigma 150-500mm, ISO 1600, 1/250 second, f/5, focal length 200mm&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt; &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Question:&lt;/strong&gt; This southeast Asian mystery bird is part of a family whose taxonomic relationships are still unresolved. Can you identify this bird&#039;s taxonomic family and species? What might be the function of those funny-looking &quot;horns&quot; on this bird&#039;s head?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Response:&lt;/strong&gt; This is a Malay eagle-owl, &lt;em&gt;Bubo sumatranus&lt;/em&gt;, a resident of moist lowland forests throughout the south Pacific: Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, and the Cocos Islands. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This large owl is placed in the taxonomic family, Strigidae. Originally, only owls with ear-tufts or &quot;horns&quot; were included in the genus, &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt;, but that is no longer the case. Interestingly, &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt; species are found in North and South America (&quot;horned&quot; owls) and in the Old World (&quot;eagle-owls&quot;). However, mtDNA sequence data shows that the snowy owl another eagle-owl species that has adapted to Arctic conditions, so it now considered to be a &quot;hornless&quot; &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;mtDNA data also show that the four fish-owls (&lt;em&gt;Ketupa&lt;/em&gt;) should also be placed in &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt;, too. But if that is done, then &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt; become a bit of a mess -- a mess that is resolved by removing the &lt;em&gt;Scotopelia&lt;/em&gt; fishing owls into &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt;, too. Well, at that point, you&#039;ve got dozens of owls species crammed into &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt; -- is this really proper? Further, if you&#039;ve been paying attention to the topology of the phylogenetic trees, then you&#039;ll know that the new and expanded &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt; looks like it has two distinct clades in it -- based on the species we&#039;ve looked at! Of course, there are some eagle-owls that no one has looked at yet, so adding them to the analyses could really change things. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Anyway, all that said, I did ask you what those &quot;horns&quot; on owls&#039; heads are all about and really, no one seems to know the answer to this question. We do know they are not ears, nor are they horns: they&#039;re actually feather tufts, more properly known as &lt;em&gt;plumicorns&lt;/em&gt;. But what is their function? To break up the birds&#039; outlines? Mate selection? To frighten enemies? To channel sound waves to their real ears (down lower)? Considering that this character is preserved in many owl &lt;em&gt;Bubo&lt;/em&gt; species, there must be a good reason for it and that reason must be consistent with owl lifestyles. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;You are invited to &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/punctuated-equilibrium/mystery-bird&quot;&gt;review all of the daily mystery birds&lt;/a&gt; by going to their dedicated graphic index page. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;If you have bird images, video or mp3 files that you&#039;d like to share with a large and (mostly) appreciative international audience here at &lt;em&gt;The Guardian&lt;/em&gt;, feel free to contact me to learn more. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;.. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. &lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;twitter: @&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/#!/GrrlScientist&quot;&gt;GrrlScientist&lt;/a&gt; &lt;br /&gt;facebook: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.facebook.com/grrlscientist&quot;&gt;grrlscientist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;email: &lt;a href=&quot;mailto:grrlscientist@gmail.com&quot;&gt;grrlscientist@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;author&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/grrlscientist&quot;&gt;GrrlScientist&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br/&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;terms&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.guardian.co.uk&quot;&gt;guardian.co.uk&lt;/a&gt; &amp;copy; 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. 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