The spot-bellied eagle-owl as the proposed devil bird

Record summary

Sri Lankan naturalists and popular writers have proposed the spot-bellied eagle-owl as a biological source for the ulama’s legendary scream. The proposal became especially visible in late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century discussions of the devil bird. It is a useful comparison lead because it shows how a known species can be recruited to explain an unknown-creature tradition while leaving cultural meanings intact. The owl is large and vocal, but whether its call matches every ulama description, and whether the identification was ever based on a captured specimen, remains disputed.