The forest owlet (Athene blewitti) is an owl that is endemic to the forests of central India. This bird is on the verge of extinction. This species belongs to the typical owls family, Strigidae. After it was described in 1873 and it was not seen after 1884 and considered extinct until it was rediscovered 113 years later in 1997 by Pamela Rasmussen. Searches for the species in the locality given in the label of the last collected specimen failed and it was discovered that the specimen had been stolen from the British Museum by Richard Meinertzhagen and resubmitted with a label bearing false locality information. It is known from a small number of localities and the populations are very low within the fragmented and shrinking forests of central India, leaving the species critically endangere