Subspecies Ninox (Hieracoglaux) connivens connivens (Latham, 1801)

Museums

Regional Maps

• Falco connivens Latham, J. 1801. Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae. London : G. Leigh, J. & S. Sotheby 74 pp. [12] [based on the Winking Falcon in Latham, J. 1802. Supplement II. to the General Synopsis of Birds. London : Leigh, Sotheby & Son 376 pp. pls CXX–CXL [publication dated as 1801] (53), in turn based on Thomas Watling drawing no. 9 in BMNH, see Sharpe, R.B. 1906. Birds. pp. 79–515 in, The History of the Collections contained in the Natural History Departments of the British Museum. London : British Museum Vol. 2. (110); for identity of drawing, see Gray, G.R. 1843. Some rectification of the nomenclature of Australian birds. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1 11: 189–194].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (lost, figured on Thomas Watling drawing no. 9 in BMNH), region of Port Jackson, NSW (as Nova Hollandia).

  Type locality references:

  Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980] [11-12] (cf. Hindwood, K.A. 1970. The "Watling" drawings, with incidental notes on the "Lambert" and the "Latham" drawings. Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales 1968–69: 16–32 pls IV–VII).
• Noctua frontata Lesson, R.P. 1830. Traité d'Ornithologie, ou Tableau Méthodique des ordres, sous-ordres, familles, tribus, genres, sous-genres et races d'oiseaux. Paris : F.G. Levrault Vol. 1 xxxii 659 pp., Vol. 2 (Atlas) xii 119. [Date published July 1830: Livr. 3, July 1830, dated 1831; Livr. 6 published 1831] [106] [livr. 2; for identification and locality of type and identity of name, see Pucheran, J. 1849. Observations sur les types peu connus du Musée de Paris. - Rapaces nocturnes. Rev. Mag. Zool. Paris 2 1: 17–28; if the holotype was collected by the frigate Thetis (as Tethys), as Pucheran surmized, it came from around Port Jackson where the expedition of H.Y.P.P. Bougainville put in for three months in 1825].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP, Nouvelle-Hollande (probably = region of Port Jackson), NSW (as Patrie ignorée).
• Athene fortis Gould, J. 1838. A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia, and the Adjacent Islands. London : J. Gould 8 pp., 73 pls. [Pt 3, published Apr. 1838, publication dated as 1837–1838] [text to pl. 49] [as Athene? fortis; first read at meeting of Zoological Society of London, Dec. 26, 1837, but not published in Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1837: 138–157 (141) until Dec. 1838, see Sclater, P.L. 1893. List of the dates of delivery of the sheets of the "Proceedings" of the Zoological Society of London, from the commencement in 1830 to 1859 inclusive. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1893: 435–440; although ANSP 2546 identified as type by Stone, W. in Stone, W. & Mathews, G.M. 1913. A list of the species of Australian birds described by John Gould, with the location of the type-specimens. Austral Avian Records 1: 129–180, that specimen is the individual figured (twice) on pl. 34 in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls, which could be any of various specimens obtained by Gould from both southwest Australia and New South Wales during the 1840s after the publication of Athene fortis, see Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls: this specimen is not cited as type by Meyer de Schauensee, R. 1957. On some avian types, principally Gould's, in the collection of the Academy. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 109: 123–246].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (?lost, figured on pl. 49 of original description), New South Wales.
• Falco glaucopis Gray, G.R. 1843. Some rectification of the nomenclature of Australian birds. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 1 11: 189-194 [189] [ex J. Latham, ms., nom. nov. published as synonym of Falco connivens Latham, 1802, and unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(e)].
• Ninox connivens addenda Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List. Austral Avian Records 1(5): 118-120 [Date published 24 Dec 1912] [120].

  Type data:

   Holotype MV HLW6957 complete specimen (coll. T. Carter, 22 April 1911; previously thought to be in AMNH (Mees, 1964) but not located there (not cited by Greenway, 1978) and subsequently confirmed to be in MV H.L. White collection by Davis et al. (2022)), Lake Muir, southwest WA.

  Type locality references:

  Greenway, J.C. 1978. Type specimens of birds in the American Museum of Natural History. Pt 2. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 161: 1-306 (not included in list of type specimens); Davis, R.A., Joseph, L. and Johnstone, R.E. 2022. Status of Barking Owl Ninox connivens in south-west Australia. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 142(3): 366-376 [369-370].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1981. Nocturnal Birds of Australia. Illustrated by Jeremy Boot. Melbourne : Lansdowne Edns 136 pp. 22 pls. [publication dated as 1980] [52]

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and near inland E Australia, north to near headwaters of Flinders, Gregory, Gilbert, Lynd, Mitchell and Endeavour Rivers, QLD—west locally to lower Cooper Creek and Bulloo River systems, QLD, SA—and south-west along Darling and Murray River drainages locally and erratically to Mt Lofty-Flinders Ranges and the South-East of SA and SW VIC, generally avoiding mallee—also coastal and subcoastal SW Australia between Greenough River and Esperance, WA. Apparently intergrades with N. c. peninsularis Salvadori, 1875, at north-eastern limits between Forsyth Range and Flinders and Endeavour Rivers, QLD.

Australian Endemic.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

IBRA

NSW, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Channel Country (CHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Esperance Plains (ESP), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Stony Plains (STP), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Yalgoo (YAL)

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, carnivorous, closed forest, crepuscular, mangrove, nocturnal, open forest, predator, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, usually in territorial pairs, roosts arboreally in dense foliage by day, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies through eucalypt woodland and open forest, keeping to galleries of taller river eucalypts on drainage systems inland, nests in tree hollows at medium height.

General References

Fleay, D. 1942. Barking Owl (rather than "Winking Owl") record of nesting habits. The Emu 42: 25-30 (voice, nidification)

Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 65: 1-62 (taxonomy)

Parker, S.A. 1977. Records of the Barking Owl from South Australia. South Australian Ornithologist 27: 204-206 (regional distribution)

Zillman, E.E. 1964. Observations on the Winking or Barking Owl. Australian Bird Watcher 2: 102-104 (territoriality, voice, nidification)

History of changes