Barking Owl - BirdForum Opus

Photo by Steve Williams
Old Noarlunga, South Australia, June 2005

Ninox connivens

Identification

40cm

• Brown plumage
• White spots on wings
• Streaked chest
• Underparts brownish-grey spotted white
• Lighter tail and flight feathers
• Large yellow eyes
• Dark brown beak .

Distribution

Australia and parts of Papua New Guinea.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

There are 4 subspecies^[1]:

Juvenile
Photo by tcollins
Darwin, Northern Territory, October 2012

• N. c. rufostrigata:

• Northern Moluccas (Halmahera, Morotai, Bacan and Obi)

• N. c. assimilis:

• Eastern New Guinea, Manam Island and Karkar Island

• N. c. peninsularis (occidentalis):

• Coastal northern Australia and islands in Torres Strait

• N. c. connivens:

• South-western Australia; widespread eastern Australia to base of Cape York Peninsula

Habitat

Lightly timbered open and savannah woodlands, well-forested hill and riverine woodlands.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes many types of birds, small possums, bats and rodents, beetles and crickets.

Breeding

The nest is a large hollow high in a tree. The female incubates the 2-3 white, dull, almost spherical eggs for 36 days.

Vocalisation

It sounds like a dog barking or growling, wuf wuf or wuk wuk, or can make a high pitched sound like a female screaming in pain.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, B.L. Sullivan, C. L. Wood, and D. Roberson. 2012. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2012. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/downloadable-clements-checklist
2. The Owl Pages
3. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Barking Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 26 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Barking_Owl

External Links

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