I saw a pale B. a. desertorum Pharaoh Eagle Owl
earlier in the year and took a few photos of it shown below. The Pharaoh Eagle
Owl is distributed throughout much of North Africa and the Middle East, with
two recognised subspecies. The subspecies Bubo ascalaphus ascalaphus occupies the northern part of the species
range, being found in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, northern Egypt and
Israel east to western Iraq. By contrast, the smaller, paler and sandier
coloured Bubo ascalaphus desertorum
can be found in the Sahara Desert south to Mauritania & Niger and from
Western Sahara, east, to Sudan, as well as in Eritrea, Ethiopia and much of the
Arabian Peninsula, as far south as northern Oman and as far east as southern
Iraq. They are found in arid habitats, including open desert plains, rocky
outcrops and broken escarpments and jabals, mountain cliffs and wadis. Most
records from Saudi Arabia have been attributed to the pale B. a. desertorum.
