Horned owl
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[Photo] Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus chromolithograph. Source: United States Department of Agriculture Yearbook (or Report) (various titles). Date: 1908 (date varies). Author: Louis Agassiz Fuertes (artist, 1874-1927)

The horned owls (America) and eagle-owls (Eurasia) are the genus Bubo, containing more than 20 species of typical owls which are found in many parts of the world. Horned owls are among the largest owls.

The species in taxonomic order are:

Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus
-- South American Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus nacurutu
Magellanic Horned Owl, Bubo magellanicus
Eurasian Eagle-owl, Bubo bubo
Rock Eagle-owl, Bubo bengalensis
Pharaoh Eagle-owl, Bubo ascalaphus
Cape Eagle-owl, Bubo capensis
Mackinder's Eagle-owl, Bubo mackinderi - recently split form B. capensis
Spotted Eagle-owl, Bubo africanus
Grayish Eagle-owl, Bubo cinerascens
Fraser's Eagle-owl, Bubo poensis
Usambara Eagle-owl, Bubo vosseleri
Spot-bellied Eagle-owl, Bubo nipalensis
Barred Eagle-owl, Bubo sumatranus
Shelley's Eagle-owl, Bubo shelleyi
Verreaux's Eagle-owl, Bubo lacteus
Dusky Eagle-owl, Bubo coromandus
Akun Eagle-owl, Bubo leucostictus
Philippine Eagle-owl, Bubo philippensis

mtDNA cytochrome b sequence data (Olsen et al. 2002) supports the decision to consider the Snowy Owl ("Nyctea" scandica) a specialised horned owl and moving it into Bubo:

Snowy Owl, Bubo scandiacus

Similarly, the four fish-owls previously in the genus Ketupa were provisionally moved into Bubo too:

Blakiston's Fish-owl, Bubo blakistoni
Brown Fish-owl, Bubo zeylonensis
Tawny Fish-owl, Bubo flavipes
Buffy Fish-owl, Bubo ketupu

However, the data of Olsen et al. (2002) suggests that to make the genus monophyletic, the Scotopelia fishing-owls would also need to be included in Bubo:

Pel's Fishing-owl, Bubo peli
Rufous Fishing-owl, Bubo ussheri
Vermiculated Fishing-owl, Bubo bouvieri

On the other hand, the genus now becomes quite large and ill-defined. Another possibility, recognizing that Bubo in the expanded sense seems to consist of 2 clades, would be to unite the fish- and fishing-owls in Ketupa and move some aberrant Bubo species like the Barred Eagle-owl into this genus too (Olsen et al. 2002).

Fossil record
The supposed Late Eocene/Early Oligocene eared owls "Bubo" incertus and "Bubo" arvernensis are now placed in the fossil barn-owl genera Nocturnavis and Necrobyas, respectively. "Bubo" leptosteus is now recognized as primitive strigid in the genus Minerva (formerly Protostrix). "Bubo" poirreiri from the Late Oligocene or Early Miocene of Saint-G??rard-le-Puy, France, is now placed in Mioglaux.

Named fossils retained in this genus are:

Bubo florianae (Late Miocene of Cs??kv??r, Hungary) - tentatively placed here
Bubo binagadensis (Late Pleistocene of Binagady, Azerbaijan)

Undescribed fossils of prehistoric horned owls have been recovered from Late Pliocene deposits at Sen??ze, France (Lambrecht 1933:616), and from Late Pleistocene sediments of San Josecito Cavern, Mexico (Steadman et al. 1994). In addition, some paleosubspecies have been described. The Pleistocene Sinclair Owl from California, Bubo sinclairi, may be a paleosubspecies of the Great Horned Owl (Howard 1947), while Bubo insularis is probably a junior synonym of a Brown Fish-owl paleosubspecies (Ml??kovsk?? 2002). UMMP V31030, a coracoid from the Rexroad Formation (Late Pliocene) of Kansas (USA), cannot be conclusively assgned to either the present genus or Strix (Feduccia 1970).

On the other hand, the supposed fossil heron "Ardea" lignitum (Late Pliocene of Germany) was apparently an owl and close to this genus or more probably actually belongs here (Olson 1985:167).

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