Searches in the locality mentioned on the label of the last collected specimen failed, and it turned out that the specimen had been stolen from the British Museum by Richard Meinertzhagen and resubmitted with a label bearing false locality information.

[3][4] Heteroglaux blewitti was the scientific name proposed by Allan Octavian Hume in 1873 who described a female owlet that had been shot near Basna in 1872 by his collaborator Francis Robert Blewitt (born 1815).

Hume noted that the head is smaller than in other Athene species and that the lower mandible was more strongly notched.

[7] The forest owlet was recorded in central India, and until 1997 was known from just seven specimens in museums collected in northern Maharashtra, and south-east Madhya Pradesh or western Odisha.

Searches in Gujarat had been futile until the species was rediscovered in November 1997 by a group of American ornithologists in the foothills of the Satpura Range, northeast of Bombay.

[3][8] The cause of the earlier failed searches was due to the resubmission of a stolen specimen with the falsification of locality data.

[10][11] A survey in 2011 in non-protected areas of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh confirmed the presence of the species at two locations.

[18] The forest owlet typically hunts from perches where it sits still and waits for prey.

Lizards and skinks constitute nearly 60% of its prey, rodents 15%, birds 2% and the remainder invertebrates and frogs.

[14] The forest owlet appears to be strongly diurnal, although not very active after 10 in the morning; it often hunts during daytime.

A contact call of "kee yah, kee…yah" is given when the male brings food to the female at nest.