The desert owl breeds in Israel, northeast Egypt, Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Its habitat includes desert, semi-desert, rocky ravines, and palm groves.

Its stocky body and round head recall a small tawny owl, but it is paler, less streaked, particularly on the underparts, and has yellow eyes.

The call of the desert owl is a hoooo-ho-ho-ho-ho, described as similar in rhythm to Eurasian collared dove.

Because the allocation of Strix butleri to the Omani owl left the more widespread species without a name, the authors of the study named it S. hadorami after Israeli ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai, and gave it the new common name desert tawny owl (which has been subsequently shortened to desert owl by some authors).