This is a pair. Its appearance and habits are similar to the familiar Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) of North America. This widespread, fairly common owl occurs in two color morphs. These are gray morph, but a chestnut-brown morph with orange eyes also occurs. Two (Howard & Moore) or three (Clements, HBW) subspecies are recognized, with South African birds assigned to nominate B. a. africanus. B. a. milesi is a smaller, browner isolate confined to the Arabian peninsula. B.a. tanae of SE Kenya is doubtfully distinguished from B. a. africanus (HBW, Roberts). The Greyish Eagle-Owl of east and west Africa was formerly lumped with the Spotted Eagle-Owl, but is now widely regarded as a separate species, sometimes called Vermiculated Eagle-Owl (Roberts). Canon PowerShot SX50 HS
Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Dickinson, EC, ed. 2014. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 4th ed. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.
Holt, D.W., Berkley, R., Deppe, C., Enríquez Rocha, P., Petersen, J.L., Rangel Salazar, J.L., Segars, K.P., Wood, K.L. & Marks, J.S. (2018). Spotted Eagle-owl (Bubo africanus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/55012 on 22 June 2018).
Hockey, P.A.R., Dean,W.R.J., and Ryan, P.G. Eds. 2005. Roberts Birds of Southern Africa, 7th ed. Trustees of the John Voelcker Bird Book Fund, Cape Town.