[5] Philippine scops owls are relatively small, sedentary birds that are naturally found in the forest understory.

The smallest morph, Otus megalotis nigrorum, has a reddish-brown color, no scapular line, and no feathers on its upper feet.

The medium-sized morph, Otus megalotis everetti, also lacks a scapular line and feathers on its upper feet but it has a more greyish-brown color.

It was formed around 30-35 million years ago and lead to the evolution of different subspecies of Otus megalotis.

The expansion and contraction of biomes during the last glaciation period as well as the topography in that area lead to isolation of individuals which eventually caused speciation.

The three Otus megalotis subspecies are distributed among different islands of the Philippine Archipelago which suggests they could have evolved through speciation from geographic isolation.

They are mostly observed in the understory and rarely go above 1000m altitudes, with the exception of individuals which were reported on Mount Data, Luzon.

[4] Researchers caught a Philippine scops owl in a net set up at 2m above ground during their study, which confirms that they are mostly an understory arboreal species.

O. m. everetti species exists in the eastern and southern islands including Samar, Biliran, Leyte, Mindanao and Basilan.

[6] Although they are classified as a species of Least Concern, habitat destruction from deforestation and fragmentation is a major threat to their population as they depend on forests for their survival.

Their raptorial claws, curved bill and excellent hearing and sighting skill make them powerful predators.

They have been observed to kill their victim by crushing its head, then breaking every other bone of the body to finally swallow the animal whole.

Not a lot of information is known about their reproduction but they are thought to breed throughout the year where females will lay 1 or 2 eggs annually.

[3] One juvenile with two adults have been witnessed multiple times, which supports the notion that they are monogamous birds that display care by both parents.

[6] The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed this bird as a Least-concern species as it has a large range and is still locally common in some areas.