Species Ninox (Rhabdoglaux) strenua (Gould, 1838)

Powerful Owl

© Copyright Roger Williams, Canberra

Museums

Regional Maps

• Athene strenua 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? strenua; first read at meeting of Zoological Society of London, Dec. 26, 1837, but not published in Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1837: 138–157 (142) 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 2549 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 on pl. 35 in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls, which could be any of the specimens available to Gould from between Port Phillip and Moreton Bays during the 1840s after the publication of Athene strenua, 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.
• Ninox strenua victoriae Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1: 73-80 [Date published 28 Jun 1912] [75] [holotype figured on pl. 267 and described in detail on pp. 356–357 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 4 pp. 353–440 + xi pls 267–274 [30 Aug. 1916]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630274 unsexed (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 12115), Victoria
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see 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.

  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.

  Secondary source:

   Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 4 pp. 353-440 + xi pls 267-274. [Date published 30 Aug. 1916].

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] [42]

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal mainland SE Australia and adjacent Great Dividing Range, north to headwaters of Dawson-Comet Rivers, Shoalwater Bay and Clarke Range, QLD (M. Schulz, pers. comm.), and south-west to the edge of the Victorian Wimmera and the southern South-East of SA.

IBRA and IMCRA regions

drainage basins and coastal and oceanic zones

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders (FLI), 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), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Queensland: Murray-Darling basin, NE coastal
  • Victoria

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, carnivorous, nocturnal, open forest, predator, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, volant.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, permanently paired in wet sclerophyll forest, roosts arboreally by day in forest under-canopy, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies on larger arboreal vertebrates, mainly the phalangers Petauroides volans and Pseudocheirus peregrinus, nests on beds of decayed wood in high tree hollows, female alone broods.

General References

Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. (synonymy)

Fleay, D. 1944. Watching the Powerful Owl. The Emu 44: 97-112 (behaviour, feeding, nidification)

Hyem, E.L. 1979. Observations on owls in the Upper Manning River District, NSW. Corella 3: 17-25 (behaviour, nidification)

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

Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. (synonymy)

Schodde, R. 1977. The identity of the Powerful Owl Ninox strenua from Fulham, South Australia. South Australian Ornithologist 27: 184-185 (misidentification of extra-limital record)

Seebeck, J. 1976. The diet of the Powerful Owl Ninox strenua in western Victoria. The Emu 76: 167-170 (diet)

Sharpe, R.B. 1875. Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Catalogue of the Striges, or Nocturnal Birds of Prey. London : British Museum Vol. 2 xi 325 pp. XIV pls. (synonymy; confusion with Ninox rufa (Gould, 1846))

Tilley, S. 1982. The diet of the Powerful Owl, Ninox strenua, in Victoria. Australian Wildlife Research 9: 157-175 (diet, feeding)

Wolters, H.E. 1975. Die Vogelarten der Erde. Eine systematische Liste mit Verbreitungsangaben sowie deutschen und englischen Namen. Hamburg : Paul Parey Lief. 1, 1-80 pp. (synonymy)

History of changes