History of changes

Introduction

Strigidae (typical or hawk owls) comprises about 123–161 species in 22–27 genera; six species in one genus occur in Australia and its territories. The Australian fossil record is limited to Ninox Hodgson, 1837 in the Holocene-Pleistocene on Norfolk Island and in southern Victoria. The family is virtually cosmopolitan, with centres of diversity in North and South America, Eurasia and Africa.

Strigid owls are nocturnal or sometimes crepuscular predators that, solitary, in pairs or family groups, roost by day with head erect in trees, hollows, holes or burrows, and sally on wing at night to catch large insects or small vertebrates in their talons, swallowing prey usually in large dismembered pieces or sometimes whole at perch, and regurgitating indigestible parts in medium-sized, loosely bound pellets. Nests are of unconstructed beds in hollows, holes, burrows or usurped platform nests of other birds; eggs are spheroidal, plain dull white, and are incubated by the female; young are altricial, nidicolous and moult through two successive downs (protoptile, mesoptile) to fledge in the second.

Family-group Systematics

Whether to combine the strigid and tytonid owls in one family, or to separate them in two, remains open to argument. Hartert (1912–1921), Stresemann (1927–1934), Mayr & Amadon (1951), Vaurie (1965), Eck & Busse (1973), Wolters (1975–1982) and Amadon & Bull (1988) combined them, an approach supported by morphological and ontogenetic evidence (Stresemann & Stresemann 1966; Bock & McEvey 1969), cross-fertility (Flieg 1971), and the traits of the bay owls, Phodilus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1830 (Beddard 1890; Pycraft 1903a; Stresemann loc. cit; Miller 1965; Burton 1973; Eck & Busse loc. cit.; cf. Marshall 1966). Alternatively, strigids and tytonids have been separated in two families by Sharpe (1875), Beddard (1888), Pycraft (1898,1903b), Peters (1940), Verheyen (1956), Wetmore (1960), Mees (1964), van der Weyden & Ginn in Burton (1973), Condon (1975), Clark et al. (1978), Schodde & Mason (1981), American Ornithologists' Union (1983), Cramp (1985), Sibley et al. (1988) and Sibley & Monroe (1990); Phodilus has usually been included with the tytonids. Although strigids and tytonids may be monophyletic with respect to other families, prevailing convention supported by the genetic distance recorded between them by DNA/DNA hybridisation (Sibley et al. loc. cit.; Sibley & Ahlquist 1990), and the widely divergent karyotype of tytonids, including Phodilus (data in Christidis 1990), suggest that they are better treated as separate families for the present. This arrangement is consistent with their usual treatment in Australian literature cf. Alcedinidae.

By convention, strigid owls comprise two subfamilies: New World and Eurasian Striginae Leach, 1820 with large asymmetric ears and well-developed facial discs, and cosmopolitan Buboninae Vigors, 1825 with smaller, symmetric ears and incomplete to obscure facial discs (e.g. Sharpe 1875; Peters 1940; Cramp 1985). Buboninae are much the larger group, and include Australasian Ninox Hodgson, 1837. Wolters (1975–1982) and tentatively C.S. Roselaar in Cramp (loc. cit.) have split Strigidae as defined here into three subfamilies but with differing limits, indicating that infra-familial groupings and phylogeny are far from understood.

Note: until about 1910, Bubonidae was used as the usual name for this family because Strix Linnaeus, 1758, the basionym for Strigidae, had been misapplied to the tytonid owls (Mathews 1910).

Genus-group Systematics

Ninox Hodgson, 1837—As accepted here, this genus comprises about 16–19 species of west Pacific owls with small, untufted inoperculate ears, obsolete facial discs, and simple descendent moult of primaries. These traits suggest that their closest relatives are Asian-American Athene Boie, 1822, Glaucidium Boie, 1826 and related owls, including Sceloglaux Kaup, 1848, from which they are distinguished by the rather trivial characters of a longer and more pointed wing, shorter first primary and more restricted nocturnal activity (cf. Sharpe 1875; Eck & Busse 1973). The relationships of these genera need further clarification, as do the subgeneric groups in Ninox and the supposedly related Uroglaux Mayr, 1937 in New Guinea, cf. Schodde & Mason (1981: 37). All three subgenera of Ninox recognised here are present in the Australasian region, the centre of diversity for the genus.

Species-group Systematics

Ninox boobook (Latham, 1802)—Although this Australian-centred species has been treated conventionally as conspecific with N. novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, 1788), it is kept separate here after Schodde & Mason (1981: 58) because its distinguishing traits of proportion and pattern have received only passing appraisal since, cf. Mees (1982) and White & Bruce (1986). In north-eastern Queensland, N. b. lurida (De Vis, 1887) may also be distinct specifically (Schodde & Mason loc. cit.), but evidence of sympatry with other forms of N. boobook is needed.

Ninox novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, 1788)—The forms of boobook owls on Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands are members of the N. novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, 1788) superspecies (Mees 1964), but their relationships to either N. novaeseelandiae, sensu stricto, or the allospecific N. boobook (Latham, 1802) have not been determined, see Schodde & Mason (1981). Accordingly, they are kept here as subspecies of N. novaeseelandiae as is conventional. This procedural decision is supported by data on their proportions and plumage patterns in relation to morphological differences between N. novaeseelandiae and N. boobook catalogued by Schodde & Mason (loc. cit.: 58):

(1) Lord Howe Island form (n=12)—tail/wing ratio 0.62±0.01, primaries 1 8, 2 6, 3 ‹ 5, facial disc light red-brown and concolorous with dorsum;

(2) Norfolk Island form (n=9)—tail/wing ratio 0.63±0.01, primaries consistently 1 ‹ 8, 2 ‹ 6, 3 ‹ 5, facial disc chestnut-brown with faint greyish cast and concolorous with crown.

The relationships of these island forms, however, need closer scrutiny.

Ninox squamipila (Bonaparte, 1850)—In its conventional definition, as adopted here, Ninox squamipila (Bonaparte, 1850) comprises two widely separated groups of populations. One ranges from the Moluccas to Tanimbar in the eastern Banda Sea where it is represented by four subspecies (White & Bruce 1986), and the other is endemic to Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean. Notwithstanding the differences recorded by Olsen & Stokes (1989), the Christmas Island population shares with east Banda Sea forms a complement of traits not found in other small species of Ninox: medium-large size (among the small Ninox) with relatively long tail, rusty-rufous body plumage including uniform throat, closely rusty-and-white barred lower ventrum, plain head and mantle grading to geographically differentiated white spotting or barring over wings to lower back, and closely barred tail (from material in AMNH, ANWC); there is no difference in iris. If the Christmas Island population is of separate origin from Banda Sea squamipila, as is quite possible, then the extent of morphological convergence between them is extraordinary. Relationships between the two groups need further investigation to settle their status.

Ninox connivens (Latham, 1802)—For Australian populations, the most recent revision by Ford (1986) is not followed here because, although distinguishing Cape York Peninsula populations from those to the south, it does not compare their statistics in size with others from elsewhere in northern Australia, and does not analyse regional variation in colour cf. Schodde & Mason (1981: 52).

Ninox rufa (Gould, 1846)—Circumscription of this species, including New Guinean forms and excluding the Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua (Gould, 1838)), was first established by Mathews (1916: 352–353) who synthesized the various opinions of C.W. De Vis, A.J. North and Ernst Hartert.

Excluded Taxa

Vagrant Species

STRIGIDAE: Ninox connivens assimilis Salvadori & D'Albertis, 1876 [Included in some Australian checklists, possibly vagrant to Torres Strait]

CAVS:8951
STRIGIDAE: Ninox japonica japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) [Brown Hawk-Owl; vagrant to Ashmore Reef and WA. Specimen record from Ashmore Reef in January 1973, see Schodde & Van Tets (1981). Accepted by RAOU Records Appraisal Committee (1988: case no. 17). The specimen appears to be of the east Asian subspecies, N. s. japonica (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) which migrates to the Philippine and Indonesian archipelagos during the boreal winter, see Mees (1970)] — Mees, G.F. 1970. Notes on some birds from the island of Formosa. Zoologische Mededelingen (Leiden) 44: 285-304; Schodde, R. & Van Tets, G.F. 1981. First record of the Brown Hawk-Owl Ninox scutulata from Australasia. The Emu 81: 171; RAOU Records Appraisal Committee 1988. Second Report of the Records Appraisal Committee. The Emu 88: 54-57

CAVS:0823
STRIGIDAE: Ninox scutulata (Raffles, 1822) [Brown Hawk-owl; vagrant to Ashmore Reef and WA] — Stanger, M., Clayton, M., Schodde, R., Wombey, J. & Mason, I. 1998. CSIRO List of Australian Verebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing iii 124 pp. [97]

Diagnosis

Small to very large, mottled-plumaged raptors, with forward-facing usually yellowish eyes in usually weakly developed facial discs, and hooked and cered bills surrounded by facial bristles; body feathering soft and downy in defined tracts; no under downs; aftershafts vestigial; uropygial gland well developed, naked. Feet taloned and anisodactylous; tarsi feathered, outer toe reversible, mid toe longer than inner, with smooth claw; hypotarsus with single deep furrow. Sexes similar, females usually larger. Wings broadly rounded with remiges frayed all round; 10 emarginate primaries plus remicle moulting in descending or serial sequence, and 12–18 diastataxic secondaries moulting at three foci; tail rounded: 12 (rarely 10) rectrices moulting erratically in somewhat centripetal sequence. Nares holorhinal and impervious, nasal septum imperforate; schizognathous (-desmognathous) palate, with small discrete vomer, palatines curved and posteriorly expanded, leaving swollen and pneumatic maxillaries and appressed lachrymals well exposed; basipterygoid processes developed, functional; skull bulbous, with huge orbits separated by thinseptum; cervical vertebrae 14, the neck flexible and able to turn through about 270º; sternum deeply two-notched on each side, only small spina externa present, furcula expanded at articulation with coracoids, without hypocleideum. Musculus expansor secundariorum and biceps slip absent, M. tensor patagium brevis with wristward slip; pelvic muscle formula A or AD, no M. ambiens; deep plantar tendons Type I. Carotid arteries paired. Syrinx bronchial with one pair of intrinsic muscles attached to rings 1–10. Eyes very large, tubular, closed by both lids; ears large, often asymmetric, with little covering flap; tongue fleshy; no crop; caeca large, dilated. Diploid karyotype of 78–82 chromosomes, with 6–7 pairs of macrochromosomes.

General References

Amadon, D. & Bull, J. 1988. Hawks and owls of the world. Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology 3: 295-357

American Ornithologists' Union. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. 6th Edn American Ornithologists' Union xxix 877 pp.

Beddard, F.E. 1888. On the classification of the Striges. Ibis 30: 335-344

Beddard, F.E. 1890. On Photodilus badius, with remarks on its systematic position. Ibis 32: 293-304

Bock, W.J. & McEvey, A. 1969. The radius and relationship of owls. Wilson Bulletin 81: 55-68

Burton, J.A. (ed.) 1973. Owls of the World. Their evolution, structure and ecology. London : Peter Lowe (Eurobook Ltd) 216 pp.

Christidis, L. 1990. Chordata 3B. Aves. Animal Cytogenetics 4. Berlin : Gebrüder Borntraeger 116 pp.

Clark, R.J., Smith, D.G. & Kelso, L.H. 1978. Working Bibliography of Owls of the World, with summaries of current taxonomy and distributional status. Washington, D.C. : Raptor Information Center, National Wildlife Federation Scientific/Technical Series Vol. 1 319 pp.

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

Cramp, S. (ed.) 1985. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palaearctic. Oxford : Oxford University Press Vol. 4 960 pp. 98 pls.

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp.

Feduccia, A. & Ferree, C.E. 1978. Morphology of the bony stapes (columella) in owls: evolutionary implications. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 91: 431-438

Flieg, G.M. 1971. Tytonidae x Strigidae cross produces fertile eggs. Auk 88: 178

Ford, J. 1986. Avian hybridization and allopatry in the region of the Einasleigh uplands and Burdekin-Lynd divide, north-eastern Queensland. The Emu 86: 87-110

Glenny, F.H. 1943. A systematic study of the main arteries in the region of the heart. Aves X. Strigiformes, part 1. Transactions of the Royal Canadian Institute 24: 233-239

Hartert, E. 1921. Die Vögel der paläarktischen Fauna. Systematische Übersicht der in Europa, Nord-Asien und der Mittelmeerregion vorkommenden Vögel. Berlin : R. Friedländer & Sohn Bd Vol. 2 xxiv 833-1764 pp., 135-256 pls. [published between 1912–1921]

Kaup, J.J. 1859. Monograph of the Strigidae. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 4: 201-260

Marshall, J.T. Jr 1966. Relationships of certain owls around the Pacific. Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society 21: 235-242

Mathews, G.M. 1910. On some necessary alterations in the nomenclature of birds. Novitates Zoologicae 17: 492-503

Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pts 2-4 pp. 153-440 pls 245-274. [Date published May 1916: publication dated as 1915–1916]

Mayr, E. & Amadon, D. 1951. A classification of recent birds. American Museum Novitates 1496: 1-42

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

Mees, G.F. 1982. Review of Nocturnal Birds of Australia by R. Schodde and I.J. Mason. The Emu 82: 182-184

Miller, A.H. 1965. The syringeal structure of the Asiatic owl Phodilus. Condor 67: 536-538

Norberg, R.A. 1977. Occurrence and independent evolution of bilateral ear asymmetry in owls and implications on owl taxonomy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 280: 375-408

Olsen, P. & Stokes, T. 1988. State of knowledge of the Christmas Island Hawk-Owl Ninox squamipila natalis. pp. 411-414 in Meyburg, B.-U. & Chancellor, R.D. (eds). Raptors in the Modern World. Berlin : World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls, ICBP 611 pp.

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

Pycraft, W.P. 1898. A contribution towards our knowledge of the morphology of the owls. Part I. Pterylography. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 2 7: 223-275

Pycraft, W.P. 1903. A contribution towards our knowledge of the morphology of the owls. Part II. Osteology. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 2nd Series Zoology 9(1): 1-46

Pycraft, W.P. 1903a. On the pterylography of Photodilus. Ibis 45: 36-48

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]

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.

Sibley, C.G., Ahlquist, J.E. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1988. A classification of living birds of the world based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies. Auk 105: 409-423

Sibley, C.G. & Ahlquist, J.E. 1990. Phylogeny and Classification of Birds. A Study in Molecular Evolution. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiii 976 pp.

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp.

Stresemann, E. & Stresemann, V. 1966. Die Mauser der Vögel. Journal of Ornithology 107(Sonderheft): i-viii, 1-448

Vaurie, C. 1965. The Birds of the Palaearctic Fauna A systematic reference. Non-Passeriformes. London : H.F. & G. Witherby xx 763 pp.

Verheyen, R. 1956. Les Striges, les Trogones et les Caprimulgi dans la systématique moderne. Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 32(3): 1-31

Wetmore, A. 1960. A classification for the birds of the world. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 139(11): 1-37

White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An annotated check-list. B.O.U. Check-list No. 7. London : British Ornithologists' Union 524 pp.

Wolters, H.E. 1975–1982. Die Vogelarten der Erde. Eine systematische Liste mit Verbreitungsangaben sowie deutschen und englischen Namen. Hamburg : Paul Parey xx 745 pp.

History of changes

• Bubo Duméril, A.M.C. 1806. Analytische Zoologie aus dem Französischen mit zusätzen von L.F. Froriep. Weimar. [34].
• Ketupa 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] [114].

  Type species:

   Strix ketupu Horsfield, 1821 by absolute tautonymy.
• Ketupu Gray, G.R. 1840. A List of the Genera of Birds, with an indication of the typical species of each genus. London : R. & J.E. Taylor viii 80 pp. [Date published Apr 1840: published before Apr.] [6] [emendation of Ketupu Lesson, 1830].
• Ketupa Agassiz, L. 1846. Nomenclatoris Zoologici Index Universalis, continens nomina systematica classium, ordinum, familiarum et generum animalium omnium, tam viventium quam fossilium, secundum ordinem alphabeticum unicum disposita, adjectis homonymiis plantarum, nec non variis adnotationibus et emendationibus. Soloduri [= Solothurn, Switzerland] : Jent & Gassmann viii 393 pp. [published between 1846–1848] [emendation for Ketupu Gray, 1840].

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Aust. Terr.)

IMCRA

Cocos (Keeling) Island Province (22)

Other Regions

Cocos (Keeling) Islands terrestrial & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Oriental Region

• Cocos (Keeling) Islands (Aust. Terr.)
• Indonesia
  • Java
• Indonesia
• Indonesia
  • Sumatra
• Indonesia

History of changes

Introduction

Referred to Bubo, following Christidis and Boles (2008: 166).

Distribution

IMCRA

Cocos (Keeling) Island Province (22)

Other Regions

Cocos (Keeling) Islands terrestrial & freshwater

General References

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [166]

Common Name References

Stanger, M., Clayton, M., Schodde, R., Wombey, J. & Mason, I. 1998. CSIRO List of Australian Verebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing iii 124 pp. (Buffy Fish-owl)

History of changes

• Strix ketupu Horsfield, T. 1821. Systematic arrangement and description of birds from the island of Java. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 13: 133-200 [141].

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Specimen record in 1841, see Gibson-Hill, C.A. 1949. The birds of the Cocos-Keeling Islands (Indian Ocean). Ibis 91: 221–243. Elsewhere widespread in lowland SE Asia and the Greater Sundas (Malay Peninsula, including Bangka, Belitung, Bali) and Borneo. Record accepted, being based on a specimen; the skin is probably deposited in the Raffles Museum, Singapore. The specimen should be of the nominotypical subspecies, K. k. ketupu (Horsfield, 1821) which is widespread in Malaysia and the Greater Sundas, see Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp..

Other Regions

Cocos (Keeling) Islands terrestrial & freshwater

Distribution References

History of changes

Taxonomic Decision for Subgeneric Arrangement

• 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] [37, 42, 52, 58] (defining three groups of species treated here as subgenera (Uroglaux Mayr, 1937 excluded))

Introduction

We follow Gwee et al. (2017) in recognising Ninox boobook and N. novaeseelandiae as separate species, and the arrangement of subspecies within these taxa.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

IMCRA

Cape Province (20)

Other Regions

Christmas Island terrestrial & freshwater, Cocos (Keeling) Islands terrestrial & freshwater, Coral Sea Islands Territory, Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater

General References

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

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp. (subgeneric arrangement and generic limits)

Gwee, C.Y., Christidis, L., Eaton, J.A., Norman, J.A., Trainor, C.R., Verbelen, P. & Rheindt, F.E. 2017. Bioacoustic and multi-locus DNA data of Ninox owls support high incidence of extinction and recolonisation on small, low-lying islands across Wallacea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 109: 246-258

Mathews, G.M. 1913. A List of the Birds of Australia containing the names and synonyms connected with each genus, species, and subspecies of birds found in Australia, at present known to the author. London : Witherby xxvii 453 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement also subsequent revisions)

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

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

RAOU Checklist Committee, Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 1926. Official Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union x 212 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

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. (subgeneric arrangement and generic limits)

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (subgeneric arrangement and generic limits)

van der Weyden, W. & Ginn, H. 1973. Check list of species. pp. 198-199 in Burton, J.A. (ed.). Owls of the World. Their evolution, structure and ecology. London : Peter Lowe (Eurobook Ltd) 216 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] (subgeneric arrangement and generic limits)

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. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

History of changes

• Hieracoglaux Kaup, J.J. 1848. Uebersicht der Eulen (Strigidae). Isis Oken 10: col. 753-772 [For publication date Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp.] [col. 768] [as subgenus of Ninox Hodgson, 1837; published without description, but based by reference on Falco connivens Latham, 1802 and Athene strenua Gould, 1838, and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(5); also as incorrect subsequent spellings, Jeraglaux by Kaup, J.J. 1851. Corrigiste Uebersicht der Falconidae. Archiv für Naturgeschichte (Wiegmann) 1851: 104; Zeraglaux by Kaup, J.J. 1852. Monograph of the Owls—Strigidae, Pt 1. pp. 119–130 in Jardine, W. (ed). Contributions to Ornithology for 1851. Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars 163 pp. [123, 127]; Ieroglaux by Bonaparte, C.L. 1854. Tableau des oiseaux de proie. Rev. Mag. Zool. Paris 2 6: 530–544 [543]; and Hiracoglaux by Heine, F. & Reichenow, A. 1890. Nomenclator Musei Heineani Ornithologici. Berlin : R. Friedländer & Sohn Bd vi 373 pp. [publication dated as 1882–1890] (248)].

  Type species:

   Falco connivens Latham, 1801 by subsequent designation, see Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp. [8].

  Secondary source:

   Kaup, J.J. 1851. Corrigiste Uebersicht der Falconidae. Archiv für Naturgeschichte 1851: 104; Kaup, J.J. 1852. Monograph of the Owls—Strigidae, Pt 1. pp. 119-130 in Jardine, W. (ed.). Contributions to Ornithology for 1851. Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars 163 pp.; Bonaparte, C.L. 1854. Tableau des oiseaux de proie. Revue et Magasin de Zoologie (Paris) 2 6: 530-544; Heine, F. & Reichenow, A. 1890. Nomenclator Musei Heineani Ornithologici. Berlin : R. Friedländer & Sohn Bd vi 373 pp. [publication dated as 1882–1890].
• Ieraglaux Kaup, J.J. 1852. Monograph of the Owls—Strigidae, Pt 2. pp. 103-122 in Jardine, W. (ed.). Contributions to Ornithology for 1852. Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars 162 pp. [publication dated as 1853 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [107] [not an alternative spelling of Hieracoglaux Kaup, 1848, being introduced without reference and with expanded generic circumscription, including three nominal species as well as Falco connivens Latham, 1802 in subgenus Ieraglaux, cf. Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] (334); author's initials misquoted 'T.T' in original description].

  Type species:

   Falco connivens Latham, 1801 by subsequent designation, see Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [278].

  Secondary source:

   Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249-352 pls 255-266. [Date published 23 May 1916: Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.].

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [278]

Distribution

States

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

Extra Distribution Information

Moluccas, east lowland New Guinea and adjacent islands.

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: SE coastal
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin
  • Victoria: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal, SW coastal

Distribution References

History of changes

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• 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, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: SE coastal
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin
  • Victoria: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal, SW coastal

General References

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

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

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

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp. (subspecific arrangement and specific limits)

Ford, J. 1986. Avian hybridization and allopatry in the region of the Einasleigh uplands and Burdekin-Lynd divide, north-eastern Queensland. The Emu 86: 87-110 (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement also subsequent revisions)

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

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

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

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

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (subspecific arrangement and specific limits)

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. (subspecific arrangement and specific limits)

History of changes

• 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

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

• Ninox peninsularis Salvadori, T. 1876. Descrizione di due nuove specie di uccelli del Capo York. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale, Genova 7: 991-992 [publication dated 1875] [992].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) MCG C.E.21650 unsexed, Somerset, Cape York, QLD (as Caput York, presso Somerset); MCG C.E.21651 unsexed, Somerset, Cape York, QLD (as Caput York, presso Somerset); MCG C.E.24884 unsexed, Somerset, Cape York, QLD (as Caput York, presso Somerset)
  Comment: for identification of syntypes, see Arbocco, G., Capocaccia, L. & Violani, C. 1979. Catalogo dei tipi di uccelli del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Genova. Annali del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Genova 82: 184–265.
• Ninox connivens occidentalis Ramsay, E.P. 1887. List of Western Australian birds collected by Mr Cairn, and Mr. W.H. Boyer-Bower, at Derby and its vicinity, with remarks on the species. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2 1: 1085-1100 [publication dated as 1886] [1086] [as Ninox connivens-occidentalis; based on two specimens with locality deduced from title, and described as a variety of Ninox connivens (Latham, 1802); for identification of type material, see Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42: Ramsay had labelled AM O.328 as 'type' but never published his choice: accordingly, lectotypification is effected under ICZN Art. 74(a)].

  Type data:

   Lectotype AM 0.329 unsexed, Derby, inland from Kimberley, WA.
  Paralectotype(s) AM 0.328 unsexed.

  Subsequent designation references:

  Hindwood, K.A. 1946. A list of the types and paratypes of birds from Australian localities in the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 21: 386-393.

  Type locality references:

  Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum n 4: 1-42.
• Ninox connivens suboccidentalis Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [255] [holotype figured on pl. 264 and described in detail on pp. 336–337 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pts 2–4 pp. 153–440 pls 245–274 [May 1916, publication dated as 1915–1916]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630338 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 909), Port Keats, NT (as Northern Territory)
  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:

  Mathews, G.M. 1913. A List of the Birds of Australia containing the names and synonyms connected with each genus, species, and subspecies of birds found in Australia, at present known to the author. London : Witherby xxvii 453 pp. [115].

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

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal to near inland N Australia, south-west in Pilbara to Gascoyne River and inland to upper Ashburton and Oakover Rivers, WA, all Kimberley Division south to Frazier Downs, Sturt Greek and Negri River, WA, upper NT north of Tanami Desert and Barkly Tableland, and wooded sectors of Gulf drainage and Cape York Peninsula, QLD, south to Selwyn Range in west and upper Flinders, Gregory, Gilbert, Lynd, Mitchell and Endeavour Rivers in east—also main south-west islands in Torres Strait. Apparently intergrades with N. c. connivens (Latham, 1802) along and immediately south of Forsyth Range and upper Flinders, Gregory and Gilbert Rivers to Endeavour River, QLD.

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gascoyne (GAS), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT), 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 open eucalypt forest and woodland, paperbark (Melaleuca) galleries, and vine forest, keeping to galleries of taller eucalypts along streams in Pilbara, nests in tree hollows at medium height.

General References

Mees, G.F. 1963. The status and distribution of some species of owls in Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 8: 166-169 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240)] (distribution, status)

History of changes

• Ninox Hodgson, B.H. 1837. Indication of a new genus belonging to the Strigine family, with description of the new species and type. Madras Journal of Literature and Science 5: 23-25 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240)] [23].

  Type species:

   Ninox nipalensis Hodgson, 1837 by original designation (=Ninox scutulata lugubris (Tickell, 1833)).
• Spiloglaux Kaup, J.J. 1848. Uebersicht der Eulen (Strigidae). Isis Oken 10: col. 753-772 [For publication date Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp.] [col. 768] [as subgenus of Ninox Hodgson, 1837; published without description, but based by reference on Strix novaeseelandiae Gmelin, 1788, Noctua maculata Vigors & Horsfield, 1827, Athene marmorata Gould, 1846, and Strix boobook Latham, 1802, and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(5)].

  Type species:

   Strix boobook Latham, 1801 by subsequent designation, see Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp. [8].

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] [37, 58]

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

All Papuasia, east to Solomon Ils and New Zealand, and west to Indonesian archipelagos, Philippines and E Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Ils and Madagascar.

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Other Regions

Christmas Island terrestrial & freshwater, Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Norfolk Island
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal, W plateau
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, S Gulfs, SE coastal
  • Tasmania
  • Victoria: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal, SW coastal, W plateau
• Indonesia
  • Sulawesi (Celebes)
• New Zealand

Oriental Region

• China (People's Republic)
• Christmas Island (Aust. Terr.)
• Indonesia
  • Java
  • Sumatra
• Philippines

Palaearctic Region

• Japan
• South Korea

Distribution References

General References

Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp.

Van Tets, G.F. & Van Tets, P.A. 1967. Report on the resident birds of the Territory of Christmas Island. The Emu 66: 309-317

History of changes

Miscellaneous Literature Names

• Ninox (Ninox) novaeseelandiae Gmelin, 1788 [a misidentification, treat N. boobook as a junior synonym of N. novaeseelandiae]. —
  Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [165] (also table p.166)

Introduction

Treated as a synonym of Ninox novaeseelandiae (Gmelin 1788) by Christidis and Boles (2008), but widely recognised as valid (Schodde, 1997; Clements, 2007; Dickinson, 2003; Dickinson & Remsen, 2013) with this confirmed by Gwee et al. (2017)

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: 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), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Kanmantoo (KAN), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT) ; ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, Vic: Flinders (FLI), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP)

General References

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [165-166]

Clements, J.F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press 6, pp. 843.

Dickinson, E.C. (ed.) 2003. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. London : Christopher Helm 1039 pp.

Dickinson, E.C. & Remsen Jr, J.V. (eds) 2013. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World 4th. edition Vol. 1. Non-passerines. Eastbourne : Aves Press pp.461.

Gwee, C.Y., Christidis, L., Eaton, J.A., Norman, J.A., Trainor, C.R., Verbelen, P. & Rheindt, F.E. 2017. Bioacoustic and multi-locus DNA data of Ninox owls support high incidence of extinction and recolonisation on small, low-lying islands across Wallacea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 109: 246-258

Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [270]

History of changes

• Strix boobook Latham, J. 1801. Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae. London : G. Leigh, J. & S. Sotheby 74 pp. [15] [as Str. Boobook; based on the Boobook Owl, from a local Aboriginal name, 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] (6), in turn based on Thomas Watling drawing no. 24 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. (112–113)].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (lost, figured on Thomas Watling drawing no. 24 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, 57] (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).
• Athene marmorata Gould, J. 1846. Descriptions of eleven new species of Australian birds. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1846: 18-21 [Date published July 1911: published May] [18] [Gould specifed no type material in the original description other than by the annotation 'South Australia', but did mention specimens in his own collection and BMNH from that region in Gould, J. 1865. Handbook to the Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 viii + 636 pp. [For publication date Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]; because marmoratus was published almost seven years after Gould's visit to South Australia and some months after Sir George Grey relinquished his governorship there, it may be assumed that the lectotypification effected 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 under ICZN Art. 74(a) is from the type series, and that the three Grey specimens in BMNH listed by 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 [170] are thus paralectotypes—none of these specimens are cited as types 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 or Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.].

  Type data:

   Lectotype ANSP 2532 ♂ (Verreaux cat. no. 71), Adelaide, SA (as South Australia).
  Paralectotype(s) BMNH 3 unsexed adults (ex Sir George Grey); BMNH unsexed adult (ex Sir George Grey); BMNH unsexed adult (ex Sir George Grey).

  Subsequent designation references:

  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 [Date published 28 Feb 1913].

  Type locality references:

  Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 [105].
• Ieraglaux (Spiloglaux) bubuk Kaup, J.J. 1852. Monograph of the Owls—Strigidae, Pt 2. pp. 103-122 in Jardine, W. (ed.). Contributions to Ornithology for 1852. Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars 162 pp. [publication dated as 1853 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [108] [unjustified emendation of Strix boobook Latham, 1802; author's initials misquoted 'T.T.' in original description].
• Strix novaehollandiae Strickland, H.E. in Strickland, H.E. & Jardine, W. (eds) 1855. Ornithological Synonyms Vol. 1. Accipitres. London : John van Voorst xlvi 222 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [165] [junior homonym of Strix novaehollandiae Stephens, 1826 (=Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826)); ex J. Latham, ms., published as synonym of Strix boobook Latham, 1802, and also unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(e)].
• Spiloglaux boobook tregellasi Mathews, G.M. 1913. New species and subspecies of Australian birds. Austral Avian Records 2: 73-79 [published Dec.] [74].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630433 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 8062), Frankston, VIC (as 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:

  Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249-352 pls 255-266. [Date published 23 May 1916: Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [311, 326].
• Ninox yorki Cayley, N.W. 1929. The status of certain species of the genus Ninox, and a description of two new species of that genus. The Emu 28: 161-164 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [162] [described from a specimen in a case of bird skins acquired from Thursday Island and said to have come from Cape York; the holotype, a male with wing 240+ mm, is of the large and dark nominotypical form which occurs through east Australia south of Cape York Peninsula—that it came from the Peninsula, in the range of small, paler N. b. ocellata (Bonaparte, 1850), is doubtful—the foot of the Peninsula is only a guess, see 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] (57); for alternative interpretation of identity of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62; holotype figured on pl. 34 (top) in original description—for its deposition, see Hindwood, K.A. 1946. A list of the types and paratypes of birds from Australian localities in the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 21: 386–393; Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM 0.27647 unsexed adult, east foot of Cape York Peninsula or south in coastal east Australia (as Cape York Peninsula).

  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] [57]; Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [271] (cf. Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42).

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 65: 1-62 [23]
• 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] (for comparison)

Generic Combinations

• Ninox boobook (Latham, 1801). —
  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]
• Ninox boobook boobook (Latham, 1801). —
  Higgins, P.J. (ed.) 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Parrots to Dollarbird. Melbourne : Oxford University Press Vol. 4.

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal to near inland E Australia, north to headwaters of Burdekin and Lynd Rivers and adjacent coast, QLD—west to outer west foot-slopes of Great Dividing Range, QLD (Hughenden-Barcaldine-Charleville) through E Murray-Darling basin, NSW, VIC (Brewarrina, Condobolin, Narrandera, Mildura) to Murray Mallee, Mt Lofty-Flinders Ranges and Yorke Peninsula, SA—and south to southern VIC, also occasionally Kangaroo Is., SA, on winter dispersal. Introduced unsuccessfully on Lord Howe Is. between 1918–1930. Intergrades with N. b. ocellata (Bonaparte, 1850) from between the Burdekin and upper Mitchell, Gilbert, Flinders and Thomson Rivers, QLD south-west along eastern fringes of the Lake Eyre and Bulloo River basins through W Murray-Darling basin to the Flinders Range and head of Spencer Gulf, SA.

IBRA

ACT, NSW, Qld, SA, 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), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gawler (GAW), Kanmantoo (KAN), 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)

General References

Clancy, G.P. 1977. Boobook Owls in the Sydney District. Australian Birds 12: 12-13 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Waterhouse, F.H. 1885. The Dates of Publication of some of the Zoological Works of the late John Gould, F.R.S. London : R.H. Porter xi 59 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Mathews, G.M. 1919. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 5 pp. 385–499 + xii pls 363–370 Appendixes A & B (Appendix B)]] (movements, behaviour)

Fleay, D. 1926. Habits of the Boobook Owl. The Emu 26: 97-104 [Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84] (behaviour, voice, breeding)

Lea, A.M. & Gray, J.T. 1935. The food of Australian birds. An analysis of the stomach contents. The Emu 34: 275-292 (diet)

Norman, J.A., Christidis, L., Westerman, M. & Hill, F.A.R. 1998a. Molecular data confirms the species status of the Christmas Island Hawk-Owl Ninox natalis. The Emu 98: 197-208 (as N. novaeseelandiae boobook)

Norman, J.A., Olsen, P.D. & Christidis, L. 1998b. Molecular genetics confirms taxonomic affinities of the endangered Norfolk Island Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata. Biological Conservation 86: 33-36 (as N. novaeseelandiae boobook)

van Aperen, W. 1969. Notes on breeding Boobook Owls Ninox novaeseelandiae at Melbourne Zoo. International Zoo Yearbook 9: 130 (nidification)

History of changes

• Ninox boobook halmaturina Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [254] [holotype figured on pl. 261 and described in detail on p. 312 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pts 2–4 pp. 153–440 pls 245–274 [May 1916, publication dated as 1915–1916]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630439 ♀ (G.M. Mathews coll. no. 889), Middle River, Kangaroo Is., SA (as Kangaroo Island)
  Comment: for its identification and locality, 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.

Distribution

States

South Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Kangaroo Is.

IBRA

SA: Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Kanmantoo (KAN)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • South Australia: S Gulfs

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, low open woodland, low woodland, nocturnal, open forest, predator, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, in eucalypt forest and woodland, roosts arboreally by day usually among dense branches, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies, nests on beds of decayed wood prepared by male in hollows, female alone broods.

History of changes

• Ninox boobook lurida De Vis, C.W. 1887. On new or rare vertebrates from the Herbert River, N Queensland. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales 2 1: 1129-1137 [publication dated as 1886] [1135] [as Ninox boobook var. lurida; based on two males, identified by Ingram, G.J. 1987. Avian type specimems in the Queensland Museum. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 25: 239–254; for validation of description, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (26)].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) QM 0.14841 ♂ adult, Maunga Creek, Cardwell and Herbert Gorge, north QLD (as dark thick scrubs, a few miles from Cardwell); QM 0.14842 ♂ adult, Maunga Creek, Cardwell and Herbert Gorge, north QLD (as dark thick scrubs, a few miles from Cardwell).

  Type locality references:

  Ingram, G.J. 1987. Avian type specimens in the Queensland Museum. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 25: 239-254.
• Spiloglaux boweri Mathews, G.M. 1913. New species and subspecies of Australian birds. Austral Avian Records 2: 73-79 [published Dec.] [74] [holotype figured on pl. 262 and described in detail on pp. 312–313 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630561 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Peterson's Pocket, Cairns, QLD
  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.

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] [54-58]

Miscellaneous Literature Names

• Ninox (Ninox) novaeseelandiae lurida [a misidentification].

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal north-eastern QLD and adjacent ranges and tablelands, north to Mt Finnegan, south to the Seaview Range, and west inland to summit ridges of Great Dividing Range, including Windsor, Atherton and Evelyn Tablelands.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, closed forest, nocturnal, nomadic, predator, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, volant.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, primarily in montane rainforest at c. 500–1000 m altitude, roosts arboreally by day usually among dense branches, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies, nests on beds of decayed wood presumably prepared by male in hollows, presumably female alone broods, occasionally disperses to lowlands in winter.

General References

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

History of changes

• Athene ocellata Bonaparte, C.L. 1850. Conspectus Generum Avium. Tom. I. Lugduni, Batavorum : E.J. Brill 543 pp. [Date published 24 Jun 1850] [42] [based on the Chevêche ocellöe figured on pl. 3, fig. 2 (1843) of Oiseaux in Dumont-d'Urville, J. 1853. Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée pendant les années 1837–1838–1839–1840, sous le commandement de M.J. Dumont-d'Urville Capitaine de vaisseau. Atlas, Zoologie. Paris : Gide et Cie et J. Baudry [published between 1842–1853]; authorship attributed to Hombron and Jacquinot, but their formal naming of the form was not published until 1853 by J. Pucheran in Dumont-d'Urville, J. 1853. Voyage au Pole Sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée exécuté par ordre du Roi pendant les années 1837–1838–1839–1840, sous le commandement de M.J. Dumont-d'Urville Capitaine de vaisseau. Zoologie. Pt 1 (Mammifères et Oiseaux). Paris : Gide et Cie et J. Baudry Vol. III 6–166 pp. (51), see Sherborn, C.D. & Woodward, B.B. 1901. Notes on the dates of publication of the natural history portions of some French voyages - Part 1. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 7 7: 388–392 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] and, for authorship, Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240); for application of name, see Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. (138–139, footnote)].

  Type data:

   Holotype MNHP 178 unsexed adult, Raffles Bay, Cobourg Peninsula, NT (as Oceania)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see 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 (170, footnote), cf. Mathews, G.M. 1927. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. London : British Ornithologists' Union Pt 1 iv 426 pp. (272); Mathews, G.M. 1930. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. Pt 2 pp. London : British Ornithologists' Union 427–1048 pp. (913); Mathews, G.M. 1932. Additions and corrections to the 'Systema Avium Australasianarum'. Ibis 13 2: 132-161;.
• Ninox boobook mixta Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [255] [holotype figured on pl. 260 and described in detail on p. 312 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630469 ♀ adult (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 893), Parry's Creek, Kimberley Division, WA
  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.
• Ninox boobook melvillensis Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [34] [published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630475 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 10796), Cooper's Camp, Apsley Strait, Melville Island, NT (as Melville Island)
  Comment: for identification of holotype and type locality, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62; 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.
• Ninox boobook macgillivrayi Mathews, G.M. 1913. Additions and corrections to my Reference List, Addenda. Austral Avian Records 1(8): 187-194 [Date published Jan.] [194].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630504 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 13881), Patison Creek, Cape York, QLD (as Cape York)
  Comment: for identification of holotype and type locality, 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.
• Spiloglaux novaeseelandiae everardi Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249-352 pls 255-266. [Date published 23 May 1916: Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [332].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630494 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Everard Range, north SA (as Everard Ranges, Central Australia)
  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.
• Ninox ooldeaensis Cayley, N.W. 1929. The status of certain species of the genus Ninox, and a description of two new species of that genus. The Emu 28: 161-164 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [163].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM 0.26604 ♀ adult, 655 km west from Port Augusta on East-West (Railway) Line (as near Ooldea), SA
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Hindwood, K.A. 1946. A list of the types and paratypes of birds from Australian localities in the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 21: 386–393; Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42.

  Type locality references:

  Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum n 4: 1-42 (cf. Hindwood, K.A. 1946. A list of the types and paratypes of birds from Australian localities in the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 21: 386–393).
• Ninox novaeseelandiae arida Mayr, E. 1943. Notes on Australian birds (II). The Emu 43: 3-17 [For publication date Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84] [16].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630464 ♂ adult, Fitzroy River, 5 miles southwest of Mt Anderson, West Kimberley District, WA
  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.
• Spiloglaux boobook parocellata Mathews, G.M. 1946. A Working List of Australian Birds including the Australian Quadrant and New Zealand. Sydney : G.M. Mathews 184 pp. [55] [published without description but based by reference on a previously published account in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] (331), and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(1); the latter account includes a description and applies exclusively to southwest Australian populations, as is evident from Mathews' introduction of parocellata for them when he realized that the type of Athene ocellata Bonaparte, 1850 was of a different form, see Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. (138–139, footnote); no type specified, but syntypes may be inferred from Mathews' prior description (Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.])—they include at least one specimen from Bayswater, near Perth, (ex coll. E. Ashby), and the type of ocellata Bonaparte, 1850: thus the protologue of parocellata is composite, see Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97–143; in choosing the type of Athene ocellata Bonaparte, 1850 as the lectotype of Spiloglaux boobook parocellata Mathews, 1946, Mees (1961) switched the type locality of parocellata and altered Mathews' intended taxonomic concept].

  Type data:

   Lectotype MNHP 178 unsexed adult, Raffles Bay, Cobourg Peninsula, NT (as South West Australia).
  Paralectotype(s) AMNH 63450? (ex E. Ashby coll.).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 [106].

  Type locality references:

  Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 [106] (by lectotypification; cf. Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. [138–139, footnote]).
• Spiloglaux ocellata carteri Mathews, G.M. 1946. A Working List of Australian Birds including the Australian Quadrant and New Zealand. Sydney : G.M. Mathews 184 pp. [55] [published with meagre description and without designated type material; for status of name and type locality, see Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97–143 (106)].

  Type data:

   Neotype WAM 9518 ♀, Marble Bar, Pilbara, WA (as Mid West Australia).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 [106].
• Ninox novaeseelandiae rufigaster Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 [106].

  Type data:

   Holotype WAM A1022 ♀, Perth, WA.

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] [54-58]

Generic Combinations

• Ninox boobook ocellata (Bonaparte, 1850). —
  Higgins, P.J. (ed.) 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Parrots to Dollarbird. Melbourne : Oxford University Press Vol. 4.

Miscellaneous Literature Names

• Ninox novaeseelandiae ocellata [a misidentification].

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Western, northern and inland Australia east to Cape York Peninsula, QLD, in north to eastern catchments of the Lake Eyre basin and to middle Darling River, QLD, NSW, and Olary Spur, N Flinders Range and Eyre Peninsula, SA, in south, but scarce to absent in treeless western deserts—also Rottnest Is. (irregular), Melville-Bathurst Ils, Groote Eylandt, Sir Edward Pellew and Wellesley Ils, rarely islands in Torres Strait (Thursday Is.), and ?Sawoe Is., Lesser Sundas. Intergrades with N. b. boobook (Latham, 1802) from between the headwaters of the Burdekin and Mitchell, Gilbert, Flinders and Thomson Rivers, QLD, south-west through the east Lake Eyre and W Murray-Darling basins to the south and central Flinders Range and head of Spencer Gulf, SA.

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, WA: 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), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Gawler (GAW), Kanmantoo (KAN), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Riverina (RIV), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal, W plateau
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, S Gulfs
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal, SW coastal, W plateau

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, low open woodland, low woodland, nocturnal, nomadic, open forest, predator, sedentary, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, in eucalypt forest, woodland and mallee, and in river eucalypts along stream lines in arid regions, roosts arboreally by day usually among dense branches, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies, nests on beds of decayed wood prepared by male in hollows, female alone broods, disperses locally after breeding.

General References

Mayr, E. 1943. Notes on Australian birds (II). The Emu 43: 3-17 [For publication date Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84] (distribution, taxonomy)

Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97-143 (taxonomy, nomenclature)

History of changes

• Athene leucopsis Gould, J. 1838. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, Oct. 10, 1837. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1837: 96-100 [published Apr. 1838, publication dated as 1837-1838 Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240)] [99] [misinterpreted as nom. nud. and as unidentifiable or referable to Strix cyclops Gould, 1837 (=Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826), q.v.) by Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additional notes. Austral Avian Records 1: 127–128; 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] (384); and Mathews, G.M. 1941. Nomenclatural matters. Emu 40: 425–426; see Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97–143; first correctly applied to this species by Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. (140); type material not traced 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 nor 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, ex J. Gould coll., now dispersed), Tasmania (as Van Diemen's Land).
• Noctua maculata Vigors, N.A. & Horsfield, T. 1827. A description of the Australian birds in the collection of the Linnean Society; with an attempt at arranging them according to their natural affinities. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 15: 170-331 [Date published 17 Feb 1827: publication dated 1826] [189] [junior homonym; junior secondary homonym of Ninox by Strix maculata Kerr, 1792 (=Ninox novaeseelandiae (Gmelin, 1788)); based on 'several specimens', probably from Tasmania where George Caley, who provided much of the material for Vigors and Horsfield's descriptions of Australian birds, collected—but locality uncertain because the Tasmanian subspecies may disperse north as far as Sydney region in winter, from where Vigors and Horsfield also had material, cf. Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171–455 [publication dated Jan. 1912, published 31 Jan.] (254); Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. (140)].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) BMNH 1863.7.7.8 adult ♂, New Holland (= south-east Australia) (published without precise locality); BMNH no. unspecified probably ♀ (ex Linnean Society of London coll.), New Holland (= south-east Australia) (published without precise locality)
  Comment: for identification of two syntypes in BMNH, see 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 (175); Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.
• Spiloglaux boobook clelandi Mathews, G.M. 1913. New species and subspecies of Australian birds. Austral Avian Records 2: 73-79 [published Dec.] [74] [holotype figured on pl. 263 and described in detail on p. 313 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630524 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Flinders Is., Bass Strait
  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.
• Spiloglaux boobook leachi Mathews, G.M. 1913. New species and subspecies of Australian birds. Austral Avian Records 2: 73-79 [published Dec.] [74].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630435 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), near Melbourne, VIC (as Victoria)
  Comment: for identity, identification and locality of holotype, see, Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (27); 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; cf. Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] (326).
• Spiloglaux novaeseelandiae tasmanica Mathews, G.M. 1917. New subspecies and notes on species. Austral Avian Records 3(4): 69-78 [Date published 21 Jul 1917] [70] [reference misquoted as vol. 5 of Austral Avian Rec. by Mees, G.F. 1961. An annotated catalogue of a collection of bird-skins from West Pilbara, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 44: 97–143; Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.; 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]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630525 ♂? (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Busby Park, TAS (as Tasmania)
  Comment: for identification of holotype and type locality, 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.

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] [54-58]

Generic Combinations

• Ninox leucopsis (Gould, 1838). —
  König, C. & Weick, F 2008. Owls of the World. London : Christopher Helm Second, pp. 528.
• Ninox boobook leucopsis (Gould, 1838). —
  Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [272]
• Ninox novaeseelandiae leucopsis (Gould, 1838). —
  Higgins, P.J. (ed.) 1999. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Parrots to Dollarbird. Melbourne : Oxford University Press Vol. 4. [852]

Introduction

Variously treated as a valid species (König & Weick 2008; Dickinson & Remsen 2013) or a subspecies of N. novaeseelandiae (Dickinson, 2003; Clements, 2007), now treated at the species level based on results of morphological, vocal and molecular analysis in Gwee et al. (2017).

Distribution

States

Tasmania, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

All TAS, Maria Is. and islands in Bass Strait (King and Furneaux group), also adjacent south-east mainland of Australia on winter migration.

Australian Endemic.

IBRA

Tas, Vic: Ben Lomond (BEL), Flinders (FLI), King (KIN), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE)

Distribution References

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, low woodland, migratory, nocturnal, open forest, predator, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Territorial ?only when breeding, randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, in eucalypt forest, woodland and heath, roosts arboreally by day usually among dense branches, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies, nests on beds of decayed wood prepared by male in hollows, female alone broods, disperses after breeding.

General References

Clements, J.F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. Ithaca, New York : Cornell University Press 6, pp. 843. [174]

Dickinson, E.C. (ed.) 2003. The Howard & Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. London : Christopher Helm 1039 pp. [234]

Dickinson, E.C. & Remsen Jr, J.V. (eds) 2013. The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World 4th. edition Vol. 1. Non-passerines. Eastbourne : Aves Press pp.461.

Gwee, C.Y., Christidis, L., Eaton, J.A., Norman, J.A., Trainor, C.R., Verbelen, P. & Rheindt, F.E. 2017. Bioacoustic and multi-locus DNA data of Ninox owls support high incidence of extinction and recolonisation on small, low-lying islands across Wallacea. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 109: 246-258

König, C. & Weick, F 2008. Owls of the World. London : Christopher Helm Second, pp. 528.

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

History of changes

• Ninox natalis Lister, J.J. 1889. On the natural history of Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1888: 512-534 [publication dated 1888] [525].

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH 1888.8.12.15 ♂ adult, Flying Fish Cove, Christmas Island (as Christmas Island)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.

  Type locality references:

  Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Confined to main island.

Other Regions

Christmas Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, closed forest, nocturnal, open forest, open scrub, predator, sedentary, tall forest, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore.

General References

Gibson-Hill, C.A. 1947. Notes on the birds of Christmas Island. Bulletin of the Raffles Museum 18: 87-165 (habitat, behaviour, nesting)

Kent, D.S. & Boles, W.E. 1984. Observations on the diet of the Christmas Island Owl. Corella 8: 93-94 (diet)

Olsen, P. & Stokes, T. 1988. State of knowledge of the Christmas Island Hawk-Owl Ninox squamipila natalis. pp. 411-414 in Meyburg, B.-U. & Chancellor, R.D. (eds). Raptors in the Modern World. Berlin : World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls, ICBP 611 pp. (status)

Pearson, A.J. 1966. The birds of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 86: 66-71 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Mathews, G.M. 1919. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 7 pt 5 pp. 385–499 + xii pls 363–370 Appendixes A & B (Appendix B)] (status, voice)

Stokes, T. 1988. A Review of the Birds of Christmas Island, Indian Ocean. Canberra : Aust. Natl Parks Wldlf. Serv. Occas. Pap. 16 40 pp. (status, references)

Common Name References

Stanger, M., Clayton, M., Schodde, R., Wombey, J. & Mason, I. 1998. CSIRO List of Australian Verebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status. Collingwood : CSIRO Publishing iii 124 pp. (Christmas Island Hawk-owl)

History of changes

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• Schodde, R. in Schodde, R. & Mason, I.J. 1997. Aves (Columbidae to Coraciidae). In, Houston, W.W.K. & Wells, A. (eds). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing, Australia Vol. 37.2 xiii 440 pp. [274] (based on criteria in 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] [58])

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Tasmania, Victoria

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater

Details of nominate subspecies, not present in Australia

Strix novaeseelandiae Gmelin, J.F. 1788. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Linné, editio decima tertia, aucta, reformata. Regnum Animalium. Leipzig (Lipsiae) : G.E. Beer Pt 1 pp. 1–500 [For publication date Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84] [296] [as (Strix) novae Seelandiae; also as incorrect subsequent spellings, novaezealandiae and zelandica, see references in 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 (173)-unjustified emendation by Sharpe (loc. cit.) not included in synonymy here, being based on non-Australian type material; based on the New Zealand Owl in Latham, J. 1782. A General Synopsis of Birds. London : B. White Vol. 1 vi 788 pp. I–XXXV pls [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] (149); holotype dispersed and lost with Joseph Banks' avian collections from James Cook's voyages, 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. (172-173); Whitehead, P.J.P. 1969. Zoological specimens from Captain Cook's voyages. Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History 5: 161–201 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Mathews, G.M. 1927. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. London : British Ornithologists' Union Pt 1 iv 426 pp.]-apparently figured as Strix fulva Latham, 1790 on pl. 39 in G. Forsters' series of drawings 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. (180); ].

Type data: holotype (probable) whereabouts unknown (lost, ex J. Banks coll., probably figured on G. Forster drawing no. 39 in BMNH).
Type locality: Queen Charlotte Sound, South Island, New Zealand (as nova Seelandia), see Latham, J. 1782. A General Synopsis of Birds. London : B. White Vol. 1 vi 788 pp. I–XXXV pls [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [149].

General References

Checklist Committee, Ornithological Society of New Zealand, Inc. (E.G. Turbott, Convener) 1990. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica. Auckland : Random Century xv 247 pp. (subspecific arrangment)

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [165] (synonymised N. boobook and N. novaeseelandiae)

Clayton, M., Wombey, J.C., Mason, I.J., Chesser, R.T. & Wells, A. 2006. CSIRO List of Australian Vertebrates: A Reference with Conservation Status. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing iv 162 pp. [68] (recognised N. boobook and N. novaeseelandiae as separate species, and listed two subspecies in the latter for Australia)

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement also subsequent revisions)

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

Norman, J.A., Olsen, P.D. & Christidis, L. 1998b. Molecular genetics confirms taxonomic affinities of the endangered Norfolk Island Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata. Biological Conservation 86: 33-36

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

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. (subspecific arrangment and specific limits)

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (subspecific arrangment)

White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An annotated check-list. B.O.U. Check-list No. 7. London : British Ornithologists' Union 524 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

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. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

History of changes

• Ninox albaria Ramsay, E.P. 1888. Tabular List of all the Australian Birds at present known to the author, showing the Distribution of the Species over the continent of Australia and adjacent islands. Sydney : E.P. Ramsay 38 pp. [36] [based on unspecified specimens; accordingly, all specimens in AM with collection date prior to 1888 are treated here as syntypes, including one specimen dated Apr. 1888 and labelled 'type' with E.P. Ramsay's initials—for their identification, see Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42].

  Type data:

   
  Syntype(s) AM 0.1428 unsexed adult, Lord Howe Island; AM 0.1429 unsexed adult, Lord Howe Island; AM 0.10143 unsexed adult, Lord Howe Island; AM 0.18709 unsexed adult, Lord Howe Island.

Distribution

States

New South Wales

Extra Distribution Information

Extinct. Lord Howe Is.; extinct at least since 1950s.

Australian Endemic.

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, carnivorous, closed forest, nocturnal, predator, sedentary, tall shrubland, territorial, volant.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore.

General References

Disney, H.J. de S. & Smithers, C.N. 1972. The distribution of terrestrial and freshwater birds on Lord Howe Island in comparison with Norfolk Island. The Australian Zoologist 17: 1-11 (status)

Fullagar, P.J., McKean, J.L. & Van Tets, G.F. 1975. Report on the Birds, appendix F. pp. 55-72 in Recher, H.F. & Clark, S.S. (eds). Environmental Survey of Lord Howe Island A report to the Lord Howe Island Board. Sydney : Australian Museum viii 86 pp. (status)

Hindwood, K.A. 1940. The birds of Lord Howe Island. The Emu 40: 1-86 pl. 1 (occurrence, diet, voice)

History of changes

• Strix undulata Latham, J. 1801. Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici, sive Systematis Ornithologiae. London : G. Leigh, J. & S. Sotheby 74 pp. [17] [as Str. undulata; based on the Undulated Owl 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] (Additions, p. 368), in turn described from details supplied by Philip Gidley King, commandant at Norfolk Island 1788–1796; for seniority of name, see Mathews, G.M. 1933. On the name of the Boobook Owl and on the genera Emblema and Paranectris. Ibis 3 3: 353 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (lost), Norfolk Island (as Insula Norfolk maris Pacifici).
• Ninox boobook royana Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List. Austral Avian Records 1(5): 118-120 [Date published 24 Dec 1912] [120] [holotype inferred but not specified in original description; accordingly, all specimens of this form in the G.M. Mathews collection in AMNH taken before the date of publication, Dec. 1912, are syntypes—these are specified by 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; lectotypification subsequently effected under ICZN Art. 74(a), but lectotype may not be the specimen nominated by Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 [29], a female according to 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 data:

   Lectotype AMNH no. unspecified ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Red Road, Mt Pitt, Norfolk Island (as Norfolk Island).
  Paralectotype(s) AMNH 630548–630559 (excluding lectotype—G.M. Mathews' coll. nos. unspecified).

  Subsequent designation references:

  Mathews, G.M. 1928. The Birds of Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands and the Australasian South Polar Quadrant with Additions to "The Birds of Australia". London : H.F. & G. Witherby xii 139 pp. pls 1-45. [22].

  Type locality references:

  Mathews, G.M. 1928. The Birds of Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands and the Australasian South Polar Quadrant with Additions to "The Birds of Australia". London : H.F. & G. Witherby xii 139 pp. pls 1-45. [22] (by lectotypification).

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 65: 1-62 [29]

Distribution

Extra Distribution Information

Norfolk Island, hybridised population with N. n. novaeseelandiae

Other Regions

Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Arboreal, arthropod-feeder, carnivorous, closed forest, nocturnal, predator, sedentary, territorial, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, roosts by day in tree canopy or hollow, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies.

General References

Hermes, N., Evans, O. & Evans, B. 1986. Norfolk Island birds: a review 1985. Notornis 33: 141-149 [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.; Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240)] (status)

Mathews, G.M. 1928. The Birds of Norfolk & Lord Howe Islands and the Australasian South Polar Quadrant with Additions to "The Birds of Australia". London : H.F. & G. Witherby xii 139 pp. pls 1-45. (morphology, status)

Norman, J.A., Olsen, P.D. & Christidis, L. 1998b. Molecular genetics confirms taxonomic affinities of the endangered Norfolk Island Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata. Biological Conservation 86: 33-36

Schodde, R., Fullagar, P. & Hermes, N. 1983. A Review of Norfolk Island Birds: Past and Present. Canberra : Aust. Natl Parks Wldlf. Serv. Spec. Publ. 8 viii (un-numbered) 119 pp. (occurrence, status, roosting, taxonomy (error in wing shape))

History of changes

• Rhabdoglaux Bonaparte, C.L. 1854. Tableau des oiseaux de proie. Revue et Magasin de Zoologie (Paris) 2 6: 530-544 [543] [published without description, but based by reference on Athene rufa Gould, 1846, A. humeralis 'Hombron & Jacquinot' (=Bonaparte, 1850), Noctua variegata Quoy & Gaimard, 1830, and Athene jacquinoti 'Hombron & Jacquinot' (=Bonaparte, 1850), and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(5): also as incorrect subsequent spellings, Rabdoglaux and Rhodoglaux by Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp. [135]; citation of Athene strenua Gould, 1838, as type species by 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 [151] is invalid: not included in protologue].

  Type species:

   Athene humeralis Bonaparte, 1854 by subsequent designation, see Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp. [135] (as Strix humeralis Bonaparte, 1854, =Ninox rufa (Gould, 1846)).

  Secondary source:

   Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp.; 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.
• Berneyornis Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249-352 pls 255-266. [Date published 23 May 1916: Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [305] [pt 3; published without description, but based by reference on Athene strenua Gould, 1838, and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(5); subsequent designation of type species with generic diagnosis on p. 355 in Pt 4 of Mathews (loc. cit.), appearing on Aug. 13, 1916, has no standing, cf. Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp. (136); Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. (213)].

  Type species:

   Athene strenua Gould, 1838 by monotypy.

  Secondary source:

   Peters, J.L. 1940. Check-list of Birds of the World. Cambridge : Harvard University Press Vol. 4 xii 291 pp.; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.

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] [37, 42]

Distribution

States

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

Extra Distribution Information

Lowland New Guinea and adjacent Waigeu and Aru Ils.

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders (FLI), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South East Coastal Plain (SCP), South East Corner (SEC), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), 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
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Victoria
  • Western Australia: N coastal

Distribution References

History of changes

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• Mason, I.J. & Schodde, R. 1980. Subspeciation in the Rufous Owl, Ninox rufa (Gould). The Emu 80: 141-144 [142-143]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal

General References

Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Part 1 Non-Passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement cf. <0055> [128])

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

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement also subsequent revisions)

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

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

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

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] [44-47] (subspecific arrangement)

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (subspecific arrangement and specific limits)

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. (subspecific arrangement and specific limits)

History of changes

• Ninox rufa meesi Mason, I.J. & Schodde, R. 1980. Subspeciation in the Rufous Owl, Ninox rufa (Gould). The Emu 80: 141-144 [142].

  Type data:

   Holotype SAMA B20480 ♀ adult, Watson River, Cape York Peninsula, QLD.

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal Cape York Peninsula, probably south to the lower Archer and possibly Mitchell Rivers on west coast and to about Endeavour River on east. Probably intergrades with N. r. queenslandica Mathews, 1911 at Endeavour River and immediately south on east coast of Cape York Peninsula.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, permanently paired in rainforest and gallery vine forest, roosts arboreally by day in forest canopy, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies through more open forest, nests on beds of decayed wood in high tree hollows, female alone broods.

History of changes

• Ninox humeralis queenslandica Mathews, G.M. 1911. In Proceedings of meeting of British Ornithologists' Club, Feb. 8, 1911. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 27: 62 [62] [holotype figured on pl. 266 and described in detail on p. 351 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pt 3 pp. 249–352 pls 255–266 [23 May 1916 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 630260 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 6119), The Hollows, Mackay, QLD
  Comment: for holotype identification and locality details, 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.
• Ninox rufa marginata Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 65: 1-62 [8].

  Type data:

   Holotype NMV ♂ adult (H.L. White coll. no. 5301), Cardwell, QLD.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mason, I.J. & Schodde, R. 1980. Subspeciation in the Rufous Owl, Ninox rufa (Gould). The Emu 80: 141-144 [142-143]

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal NE QLD, north to about Endeavour River, south to Sarina and Connors Range, and inland to Atherton Tableland (Mareeba), upper Burdekin River catchment and Clarke Range, 0–1000 m altitude, without gaps through lower Burdekin River drainage—record from Rockhampton unconfirmed. Probably intergrades with N. r. meesi Mason & Schodde, 1980 northwards around Endeavour River.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland: NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, permanently paired in rainforest and gallery vine forest, roosts arboreally by day in forest canopy, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies through more open eucalypt and Melaleuca forest, nests on beds of decayed wood in high tree hollows, female alone broods.

General References

Barnard, H.G. 1926. Birds of the Cardwell District, Queensland, Pt 1. The Emu 26: 1-13 (behaviour, nidification)

Fleay, D. 1968. Nightwatchmen of Bush and Plain. Australian owls and owl-like birds. Brisbane : Jacaranda Press 163 pp. (behaviour, nidification)

History of changes

• Athene rufa Gould, J. 1846. Descriptions of eleven new species of Australian birds. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1846: 18-21 [Date published July 1911: published May] [18] [published almost simultaneously, with holotype figured on pl. 36, in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls (Pt 23, June 1846)].

  Type data:

   Holotype ANSP 2552 unsexed adult (Verreaux cat. no. 127), Port Essington, NT, see Meyer de Schauensee (1957)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see 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 and 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 locality references:

  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, Philadelphia 109: 123-246.
• Ninox olivii Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen (Leiden) 65: 1-62 [9] [ex A.J. North, ms.; first published as junior synonym and unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(d) & (e)].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM O.12859, probably Katherine area, Arnhem Land, NT (as Cooktown)
  Comment: for probable identity of holotype, see Mason, I.J. & Schodde, R. 1980. Subspeciation in the Rufous Owl, Ninox rufa (Gould). Emu 80: 141–144.

  Type locality references:

  Mason, I.J. & Schodde, R. 1980. Subspeciation in the Rufous Owl, Ninox rufa (Gould). The Emu 80: 141-144.

Taxonomic Decision for Synonymy

• Mason, I.J. & Schodde, R. 1980. Subspeciation in the Rufous Owl, Ninox rufa (Gould). The Emu 80: 141-144 [142-143]

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal Kimberley Division and Arnhem Land, west to Prince Regent River and Mitchell Plateau, WA, and east to upper South Alligator River and Blue Mud Bay, NT, but absent from around Joseph Bonaparte Gulf—also Melville-Bathurst Ils.

IBRA

NT, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Dampierland (DL), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Northern Kimberley (NK), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal breeder, general carnivore, permanently paired in rainforest and gallery vine forest, roosts arboreally by day in forest canopy, hunts by night in perch-and-pounce sallies through more open eucalypt and Melaleuca forest, nests on beds of decayed wood in high tree hollows, female alone broods.

General References

Estbergs, J.A. & Braithwaite, R.W. 1985. The diet of the Rufous Owl Ninox rufa near Cooinda in the Northern Territory. The Emu 85: 202-204 (diet)

History of changes

• 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

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

• Ninox connivens enigma Mathews, G.M. & Neumann, O. 1939. Six new races of Australian birds from North Queensland. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 59: 153-156 [154] [name based on either a dwarf or juvenile Ninox connivens (Latham, 1802) or large, aberrant colour morph of N. boobook (Latham, 1802), see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (31)].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (?lost), Pentland, QLD.

History of changes

Introduction

Tytonidae (barn or masked owls) comprise about 10 to 17 species in two genera if bay owls (Phodilus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1830) are included; five species in one genus occur in Australia. The Australian fossil record of extant species of Tyto Billberg, 1828 is limited to the Holocene-Pleistocene, from southern Western Australia to New South Wales and the Cooper Creek basin, South Australia. The family is almost cosmopolitan, with its centre of diversity from South-East Asia to Australia.

Tytonid owls are nocturnal or sometimes crepuscular predators that, usually solitary, roost by day with head erect in tree hollows, holes, under ledges or under tussocks, and hunt on the wing at night to catch small vertebrates (commonly rodents) in their talons, carrying them in either feet or beak, and swallowing them whole or in large dismembered pieces at perch, regurgitating the indigestible parts in large, smooth pellets bound with vitreous mucus. Nests are unconstructed beds in hollows, holes or tunnels under tussock swards; eggs are ellipsoidal, plain dull white, and are incubated by the female; young are altricial, nidicolous and moult quickly through two successive downs (protoptile, mesoptile) to fledge in near-adult plumage.

Family-group Systematics

Tytonidae Mathews, 1912 are treated here as a family distinct from the hawk owls, Strigidae Leach, 1820, after Sharpe (1875), Beddard (1888), Peters (1940), Wetmore (1960), Mees (1964), van der Weyden & Ginn in Burton (1973), Condon (1975), Clarke et al. (1978), Schodde & Mason (1981), Sibley et al. (1988) and Sibley & Monroe (1990)—and for reasons given under the latter family, cf. Amadon & Bull (1988). Tytonidae comprise two genera—cosmopolitan Tyto Billberg, 1828 and palaeotropic Phodilus Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1830—which are so different that they are placed by convention in separate subfamilies, see Peters (loc. cit.), Wolters (1975–1982), Cramp (1985), cf. Marshall (1966) who recognised Phodilidae Beddard, 1898 as a family. Traits separating Tytoninae and Phodilinae are summarized by Milne-Edwards (1878), Beddard (1890), Pycraft (1903a), Verheyen (1956) and Miller (1965).

Note: prior to about 1910, Strigidae was used as the name for this family because Strix Linnaeus, 1758, the basionym for Strigidae Leach, 1820, had been misapplied to the tytonid owls (Mathews 1910).

Genus-group Systematics

Tyto Billberg, 1828—Although Tyto Billberg, 1828 is widely accepted as a well-defined genus, relationships among its component species-groups are still poorly understood cf. Schodde & Mason (1981: 61) and White & Bruce (1986). Diversity is greatest in the region of Australia-Papuasia-Sulawesi where 11 allo- or semi-specific forms occur, most of them with apparent affinity to the masked owl group, treated here as subgenus Megastix Kaup, 1848. Given that tytonid owls form an old divergent lineage among Strigiformes, it may well be found that, upon deeper investigation, their component species-groups warrant generic separation and that the subgenera accepted here are polyphyletic.

Species-group Systematics

Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769)—Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769) sensu lato, the world's Barn Owls, comprises four or five major regional forms, of which Australasian delicatula Gould, 1837 is one. It differs from other forms in its pearl-grey rather than warm tawny dorsum and, according to J. Pettigrew (pers. comm.), in its visual accuity which in turn affects its hunting behaviour. It may be allospecifically distinct from alba Scopoli, 1769 sensu stricto, but interactions with other forms cannot be tested under natural conditions at present, those stocks introduced with American T. a. pratincola (Bonaparte, 1838) to Lord Howe Island having since died out, cf. American Ornithologists' Union (1983).

Tyto capensis (Smith, 1834)—Despite the tendency to treat Asian-Australian populations of the Grass Owl (longimembris Jerdon, 1839) as specifically distinct from African capensis Smith, 1834 (Condon 1975; Bruce in White & Bruce 1986; Sibley & Monroe 1990), no case has been made for this arrangement other than by Sharpe (1875). He distinguished them by the presence or absence of bars on the primaries and tail, traits that are inconsistent in the group (Schodde & Mason 1981: 88). Relationships need re-evaluation before these two major regional forms are split, a point implicit in Mees (1964) who used longimembris Jerdon, 1839 for Australian populations only because he interpreted it as the senior available name for the group. Although there appears to be only one form in Australia, core isolated populations in inland Australian, coastal northeast Queensland and Northern Territory need to be compared for verification.

Tyto multipunctata Mathews, 1912—This particularly small and black-and-white north-east Queensland form is kept specifically distinct from T. tenebricosa (Gould, 1845) following the last substantive analysis of its traits (Schodde & Mason 1981: 69, cf. Mees 1982). Relationships between the two forms and the sootier T. tenebricosa arfaki (Schlegel, 1879) of New Guinea need re-examination. Sibley & Monroe (1990) referred arfaki to multipunctata, contrary to the analysis in Schodde & Mason (loc. cit.).

Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826)—Australian members are part of a complex of forms which is centred in Australo-Papuasia and extends north-west to Sulawesi and the Sula Islands and north and north-east to the Admiralty Islands (Manus) and New Britain, see Stresemann (1933, 1934), Eck & Busse (1973), Schodde & Mason (1981), White & Bruce (1986), and Sibley & Monroe (1990). Which taxa to include in T. novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826) and which to separate specifically are questions still far from resolution. Here Australian members are all treated as subspecies of novaehollandiae, as is conventional, see Peters (1940), Mees (1964), Condon (1975), and Schodde & Mason (loc. cit.). In separating Tasmanian T. n. castanops (Gould, 1837) allospecifically, Sibley & Monroe (1990) followed the unsubstantiated opinion of McAllan & Bruce (1989).
{3440:a}{3441:b}

Diagnosis

Medium-sized, speckle-plumaged raptors, with forward-facing deep brown eyes in discrete facial discs, and hooked and cered bills surrounded by facial bristles; body feathering soft and downy in defined tracts; no under downs; aftershafts vestigial; uropygial gland well developed, tufted. Feet taloned and anisodactylous; tarsi feathered with feathers reversed on plantar-tarsi, outer toe reversible, mid toe equal to inner, with pectinate claw; hypotarsus with single deep furrow. Sexes similar or females larger. Wings broadly rounded with emiges frayed on forward edge only: 10 inemarginate primaries plus remicle and 12–18 diastataxic secondaries moulting erratically; tail short, emarginate: 12 rectrices moulting erratically in somewhat centrifugal sequence. Nares holorhinal and impervious, nasal septum imperforate; schizognathous (-desmognathous) palate, with small discrete vomer, straight and uniformly expanded palatines almost concealing unswollen maxillaries free fromexpanded lachrymals; basipterygoid processes developed; skull anteriorly flattened with median furrow, with moderately large orbits separated by much thickened septum; cervical vertebrae 14, the neck flexible and able to turn through about 270º; sternum very broadly and shallowly one-notched on either side, only rudimentary spina externa present if at all, furcula unexpanded at articulation with coracoids, without hypocleideum. Musculus expansor secundariorum and biceps slip absent, M. tensor patagium brevis with wristward slip; pelvic muscle formula A or AD, no M. ambiens, deep plantar tendons Type I. Carotid arteries paired. Syrinx bronchial, with one pair of intrinsic muscles attached to rings 1–10. Eyes moderately large, tubular, closed by both lids, the upper with a flap; ears long, with large flap covering small orifice; tongue fleshy; no crop; caeca large, dilated. Diploid karyotype of 90 chromosomes, without macrochromosomes.

General References

Amadon, D. & Bull, J. 1988. Hawks and owls of the world. Proceedings of the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology 3: 295-357

American Ornithologists' Union. 1983. Check-list of North American Birds. 6th Edn American Ornithologists' Union xxix 877 pp.

Beddard, F.E. 1888. On the classification of the Striges. Ibis 30: 335-344

Beddard, F.E. 1890. On Photodilus badius, with remarks on its systematic position. Ibis 32: 293-304

Burton, J.A. (ed.) 1973. Owls of the World. Their evolution, structure and ecology. London : Peter Lowe (Eurobook Ltd) 216 pp.

Clark, R.J., Smith, D.G. & Kelso, L.H. 1978. Working Bibliography of Owls of the World, with summaries of current taxonomy and distributional status. Washington, D.C. : Raptor Information Center, National Wildlife Federation Scientific/Technical Series Vol. 1 319 pp.

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

Cramp, S. (ed.) 1985. Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Birds of the Western Palaearctic. Oxford : Oxford University Press Vol. 4 960 pp. 98 pls.

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp.

Feduccia, A. & Ferree, C.E. 1978. Morphology of the bony stapes (columella) in owls: evolutionary implications. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 91: 431-438

Kaup, J.J. 1859. Monograph of the Strigidae. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 4: 201-260

Marshall, J.T. Jr 1966. Relationships of certain owls around the Pacific. Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society 21: 235-242

Mathews, G.M. 1910. On some necessary alterations in the nomenclature of birds. Novitates Zoologicae 17: 492-503

McAllan, I.A.W. & Bruce, M.D. 1989. The Birds of New South Wales A Working List. Turramurra, New South Wales : Biocon Research Group vii 103 pp. [publication dated 1988, published May 1989]

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

Mees, G.F. 1982. Review of Nocturnal Birds of Australia by R. Schodde and I.J. Mason. The Emu 82: 182-184

Miller, A.H. 1965. The syringeal structure of the Asiatic owl Phodilus. Condor 67: 536-538

Milne Edwards, A. 1878. Observations sur les affinités zoologiques du genre Phodilus et description d'un nouveau genre de rapace nocturne. Nouvelles Archives du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle. Paris 2 1: 185-199

Norberg, R.A. 1977. Occurrence and independent evolution of bilateral ear asymmetry in owls and implications on owl taxonomy. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 280: 375-408

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

Pycraft, W.P. 1898. A contribution towards our knowledge of the morphology of the owls. Part I. Pterylography. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 2 7: 223-275

Pycraft, W.P. 1903. A contribution towards our knowledge of the morphology of the owls. Part II. Osteology. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 2nd Series Zoology 9(1): 1-46

Pycraft, W.P. 1903a. On the pterylography of Photodilus. Ibis 45: 36-48

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]

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.

Sibley, C.G., Ahlquist, J.E. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1988. A classification of living birds of the world based on DNA-DNA hybridization studies. Auk 105: 409-423

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp.

Stresemann, E. 1933. Ein zweites exemplar von Tyto manusi Rothsch. & Hart. Oriental Insects 41: 153

Stresemann, E. 1934. Über Vögel, gesammelt von Dr. F. Kopstein auf den Süd-Molukken und Tenimber 1922–1924. Zoologische Mededelingen (Leiden) 17: 15-19

Verheyen, R. 1956. Les Striges, les Trogones et les Caprimulgi dans la systématique moderne. Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique 32(3): 1-31

Wetmore, A. 1960. A classification for the birds of the world. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 139(11): 1-37

White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An annotated check-list. B.O.U. Check-list No. 7. London : British Ornithologists' Union 524 pp.

Wolters, H.E. 1975–1982. Die Vogelarten der Erde. Eine systematische Liste mit Verbreitungsangaben sowie deutschen und englischen Namen. Hamburg : Paul Parey xx 745 pp.

History of changes

• Tytoninae.

History of changes

• Tyto Billberg, G.J. 1828. Synopsis Faunae Scandinaviae. Tom. I, Pars 2. Aves. Holmiae 208 pp. [For publication date Richmond, C.W. 1900. Some necessary changes in nomenclature. Auk ns 17: 178–179 Lysaght, A. 1957. The first specimens of Dacelo novaeguineae and D. leachii in European collections. Emu 57: 209–210 Mathews, G.M. 1926. An important date. Emu 26: 148].
• Strix Savigny, 1809.

  Type species:

   Strix flammea Savigny, 1809 by monotypy (et auctt., =Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769)).
• Aluco Fleming, 1822.

  Type species:

   Aluco flammea Fleming, 1822 by monotypy (=Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769)).
• Ulula Nitzsch, 1829.
• Hybris Nitzsch, 1833.

  Type species:

   Hybris flammea Nitzsch, 1833 by monotypy (=Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769), method of fixation uncertain).
• Flammea Fournel, 1836.

  Type species:

   Flammea vulgaris Fournel, 1836 by monotypy (=Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769)).
• Eustrinx Webb, Berthelot & Moquin-Tandon, 1841.
• Stridula Selys-Longchamps, 1842.

  Type species:

   Stridula flammea Selys-Longchamps, 1842 by monotypy (=Tyto alba (Scopoli, 1769)).
• Glyphidiura Reichenbach, 1850.

  Type species:

   Strix perlata Lichtenstein, 1823 by subsequent designation (=Tyto alba tuidara (J.E. Gray, 1829)).
• Glaux Blyth, 1851.

  Type species:

   Strix candida Tickell, 1833 by monotypy (=Tyto capensis longimembris (Jerdon, 1839)).
• Scelostrix Kaup, 1852.

  Type species:

   Strix candida Tickell, 1833 by monotypy (=Tyto capensis longimembris (Jerdon, 1839)).
• Strigymnhemipus des Murs, 1852.

  Type species:

   Strix perlata Lichtenstein, 1823 by subsequent designation (=Tyto alba tuidara (J.E. Gray, 1829)).
• Glaucostrix G.R. Gray, 1855.
• Megastrix Kaup, J.J. 1848. Uebersicht der Eulen (Strigidae). Isis Oken 10: col. 753-772 [For publication date Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp.] [col. 770] [as subgenus of Strix Savigny, 1809 et auctt.; published without description but based by reference on Strix tenebricosa Gould, 1845 and available under ICZN Art. 12(b)(5)].

  Type species:

   Strix tenebricosa Gould, 1845 by monotypy.
• Dactylostrix Kaup, J.J. 1852. Monograph of the Owls—Strigidae, Pt 2. pp. 103-122 in Jardine, W. (ed.). Contributions to Ornithology for 1852. Edinburgh : W.H. Lizars 162 pp. [publication dated as 1853 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] [119] [as subgenus; based on Strix castanops Gould, 1837 and Strix personata Vigors, 1831 together; author's initials misspelt 'T.T.' in protologue].

  Type species:

   Strix castanops Gould, 1837 by subsequent designation, see Gray, G.R. 1855. Catalogue of the Genera and Subgenera of Birds contained in the British Museum. London : British Museum 192 pp. [10].

Excluded Taxa

Misidentifications

TYTONIDAE: Tyto alba Scopoli, 1769 [Restricted to Europe and Africa, see Introduction for further details] — Uva, V., Päckert, M., Cibois, A., Fumagallia, L. & Roulin, A. 2018. Comprehensive molecular phylogeny of barn owls and relatives (Family: Tytonidae), and their six major Pleistocene radiations. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 125: 127-137

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Temperate and tropical regions of Europe, southern Asia, Africa, North and South America and most continental archipelagos including Madagascar, West Indies, East Indies, Papuasia and south-west Pacific.

Ubiquitous throughout Australia.

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

IMCRA

Lord Howe Province (14), Norfolk Island Province (21)

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater, Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • 200 m bathymetric: Tas. Coast
  • Lord Howe Island
  • New South Wales: Bulloo River basin, Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Norfolk Island
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: Bulloo River basin, Lake Eyre basin, Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal, NE oceanic
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, S Gulfs
  • Tasmania
  • Victoria: Bass Strait, Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal, SW coastal, W plateau
• New Zealand

History of changes

• Tyto alba javanica Gmelin, J.F. 1788. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Linné, editio decima tertia, aucta, reformata. Regnum Animalium. Leipzig (Lipsiae) : G.E. Beer Vol. 1(1) 1-500 pp. [For publication date Duncan, F.M. 1937. On the dates of publication of the Society's 'Proceedings', 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of 'Proceedings', 1830–1858, compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the 'Transactions', 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 107: 71–84].
• Tyto alba alexandrae Mathews, 1912.

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629376 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 910), Alexandria, NT (as Northern Territory (Alexandra))
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see <0055>.

Generic Combinations

• Tyto javanica (Gmelin, 1788).

Miscellaneous Literature Names

• Tyto alba [misidentification, name applied prior to recognition of T. alba subspecies (now raised to species), see Christidis & Boles (2008), Aliabadian et al. (2016) and Uva et al. (2018)].

Introduction

Recognition of T. javanica as the senior name for this Australian species follows Christidis and Boles (2008: 168), and necessitates assignment of a new CAVS number, since the species concept is changed (previously recognised Tyto (Tyto) alba denticula, CAVS #8939).

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

India, Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands

Ubiquitous throughout Australia.

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater, Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Alpine, arboreal, carnivorous, desert, gregarious, hummock grassland, low open shrubland, low open woodland, low shrubland, low woodland, mangrove, nocturnal, nomadic, open forest, open heath, open scrub, predator, salt marsh, swamp, tall open shrubland, tussock grassland, volant, woodland.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, opportunistic breeder, general carnivore, in open rolling woodlands and plains, roosts in hollows and holes by day, hunts by quartering on wing through all open habitats by night, nests colonially most seasons on bed of chips and debris in hollows or holes, the female brooding.

General References

Aliabadian, M., Alaei-Kakhki, N., Mirshamsi, O., Nijman, V. & Roulin, A. 2016. Phylogeny, biogeography, and diversification of barn owls (Aves: Strigiformes). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 119(4): 904-918

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [168]

Uva, V., Päckert, M., Cibois, A., Fumagallia, L. & Roulin, A. 2018. Comprehensive molecular phylogeny of barn owls and relatives (Family: Tytonidae), and their six major Pleistocene radiations. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 125: 127-137

History of changes

• Strix delicatula Gould, J. 1837. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, Dec. 13, 1836. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1836: 139-140 [published June 1837, publication dated 1836] [140].

  Type data:

   Status unknown, whereabouts unknown, Novâ Cambriâ Australi [New South Wales, Australia].

Generic Combinations

• Tyto alba delicatula (Gould, 1837).

Distribution

States

Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

All Australia and offshore islands including Kangaroo Is., Melville-Bathurst, Groote Eylandt, TAS and Bass Strait Ils (where rare vagrant), and islands in Torres Strait—erratic vagrant on Norfolk Is. Perhaps both introduced and self-introduced on Lord Howe Is. where erratic as well—also other islands in SW Pacific and Lesser Sundas.

Ubiquitous throughout Australia.

IBRA

ACT, NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Burt Plain (BRT), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Davenport Murchison Ranges (DMR), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), MacDonnell Ranges (MAC), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Sturt Plateau (STU), Swan Coastal Plain (SWA), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Other Regions

Lord Howe Island terrestrial & freshwater, Norfolk Island terrestrial & freshwater, Torres Strait Islands terrestrial, marine & freshwater

Ecological Descriptors

Alpine, arboreal, carnivorous, desert, gregarious, hummock grassland, low open shrubland, low open woodland, low shrubland, low woodland, mangrove, nocturnal, nomadic, open forest, open heath, open scrub, predator, salt marsh, swamp, tall open shrubland, tussock grassland, volant, woodland.

History of changes

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Sturt Plateau (STU), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

Carnivorous, gregarious, low shrubland, nocturnal, nomadic, open heath, predator, terrestrial, tussock grassland, volant.

General 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 (identification of holotype and type locality of Tyto longimembris georgiae)

Ingram, G.J. 1987. Avian type specimens in the Queensland Museum. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 25: 239-254 (identification of syntypes of Strix walleri)

Whittell, H.M. & Serventy, D.L. 1948. A Systematic List of the Birds of Western Australia. Perth : Public Library Museum and Art Gallery of West. Aust. Spec. Publ. Vol. 1 vi 126 pp. [Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240) (cf. Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.)] (identification of holotype of T. longimembris maculosa)

History of changes

• Strix longimembris Jerdon, 1839.

  Type data:

   Holotype BMNH (institution uncertain, ex T.C. Jerdon coll., or ?IM—ex T.C. Jerdon coll.), Neilgherries, India.
• Strix walleri Diggles, 1866.

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) QM 0.11985 unsexed adult (institution uncertain, not traced, ?J. Gould coll., dispersed), neighbourhood of Brisbane, QLD
  Comment: for identification of syntypes, see Ingram (1987).
• Tyto longimembris georgiae Mathews, 1912.

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629423 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 12114), Victoria River, NT (as Northern Territory)
  Comment: for identification of holotype and type locality, see Greenway (1978).
• Tyto longimembris maculosa Glauert, 1945.

  Type data:

   Holotype WAM A5792 ♀, Cranbrook, southwest WA
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Whittell & Serventy (1948: 46, footnote).

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] [61]

Generic Combinations

• Tyto longimembris (Jerdon, 1839).
• Tyto longimembris longimembris (Jerdon, 1839).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Localized breeding populations in coastal and subcoastal W Arnhem Land, coastal E QLD from Cape York Peninsula to the Clarence-Macleay-Manning Rivers, NSW, and Barkly Tableland, NT, south to river plains of E Lake Eyre and N Murray-Darling basins (Georgina, Diamantina, Thomson-Cooper, Warrego, Balonne and middle Darling Rivers)—disperses irregularly to all parts of Australia, reaching Cranbrook in SW WA, Werribee near Melbourne, the Kimberley Division, and south-west islands in Torres Strait—also sporadically through Indonesian archipelagos to SE Asia and India, and to SW Pacific islands.

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mitchell Grass Downs (MGD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Nandewar (NAN), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Riverina (RIV), Sydney Basin (SB), South Eastern Highlands (SEH), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Simpson Strzelecki Dunefields (SSD), Sturt Plateau (STU), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Distribution References

Ecological Descriptors

Carnivorous, gregarious, low shrubland, nocturnal, nomadic, open heath, predator, terrestrial, tussock grassland, volant.

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, opportunistic breeder, general carnivore (primarily large rodents), riparian in flood-plain grasslands and heaths, roosts and nests in tunnels beneath grass and heath tussock, hunts by quartering on wing over heath, riparian grassland and treeless flood plains by night.

General 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 (identification of holotype and type locality of Tyto longimembris georgiae)

Ingram, G.J. 1987. Avian type specimens in the Queensland Museum. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 25: 239-254 (identification of syntypes of Strix walleri)

Whittell, H.M. & Serventy, D.L. 1948. A Systematic List of the Birds of Western Australia. Perth : Public Library Museum and Art Gallery of West. Aust. Spec. Publ. Vol. 1 vi 126 pp. [Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240) (cf. Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.)] (identification of holotype of T. longimembris maculosa)

Common Name References

Menkhorst, P., Rogers, D., Clarke, R., Davies, J., Marsack, P. & Franklin, K. 2019. The Australian Bird Guide. Clayton South, VIC : CSIRO Publishing 2nd, pp. 576. [242] (Eastern Grass Owl)

History of changes

• Tyto tenebricosa multipunctata Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [257] [holotype figured on pl. 274 and described in detail on p. 405 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 629490 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 4276), Johnstone River, northeast QLD (as Johnston River)
  Comment: for holotype identification and type locality, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (51); 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.

Generic Combinations

• Tyto tenebricosa (Mathews, 1912).

Introduction

Previously treated as a subspecies of T. tenebricosa

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Confined to coastal ranges of NE QLD above c. 300 m alt., north to Mts Finnegan and Amos, south to the Paluma Range, and inland to Windsor, Atherton and Evelyn Tablelands.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Wet Tropics (WT)

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, (opportunistic breeder), general carnivore, roosts in tree pipes and under sheltered overhanging banks, hunts in montane rainforests and its fringes, nests in tree hollows—other details of biology scanty.

General References

Mees, G.F. 1982. Review of Nocturnal Birds of Australia by R. Schodde and I.J. Mason. The Emu 82: 182-184 (alternative taxonomy)

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] (distribution, habitat, behaviour, diet, voice, nidification, taxonomy)

History of changes

Generic Combinations

• Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826).

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• 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] [74, 77] (as modified by Mason, I.J. 1983. A new subspecies of Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens) from southern New Guinea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 103: 123–128 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 (cf. Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. [288]; 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)]; also, except for partly differing distributions, Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62; Condon, H.T. 1975. Checklist of the Birds of Australia Pt 1 Non-passerines. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union xx 311 pp.)

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia

IBRA

NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Tas, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Ben Lomond (BEL), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Central Arnhem (CA), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), King (KIN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Tanami (TAN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

IMCRA

Lord Howe Province (14)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • 200 m bathymetric: Tas. Coast
  • Lord Howe Island
  • New South Wales: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: Murray-Darling basin, N Gulf, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, S Gulfs
  • Tasmania
  • Victoria: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal, NW coastal, SW coastal, W plateau

General References

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement also subsequent revisions)

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

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

RAOU Checklist Committee, Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union 1926. Official Checklist of the Birds of Australia. Melbourne : Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union x 212 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Rothschild, W. & Hartert, E. 1913. On some Australian forms of Tyto. Novitates Zoologicae 20: 280-284 (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

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. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

van der Weyden, W. & Ginn, H. 1973. Check list of species. pp. 198-199 in Burton, J.A. (ed.). Owls of the World. Their evolution, structure and ecology. London : Peter Lowe (Eurobook Ltd) 216 pp. [Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp.] (subspecific arrangement and specific limits)

White, C.M.N. & Bruce, M.D. 1986. The Birds of Wallacea (Sulawesi, the Moluccas & Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia). An annotated check-list. B.O.U. Check-list No. 7. London : British Ornithologists' Union 524 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

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. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

History of changes

• Strix castanops Gould, J. 1837. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, Dec. 13, 1836. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1836: 139-140 [published June 1837, publication dated 1836] [140] [type possibly illustrated as fig. 2 (face) on pl. 51 in Gould, J. 1838. A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia, and the Adjacent Islands. London : J. Gould 73 pls 8 pp. [Pt 3, published Apr. 1838, publication dated as 1837-1838]; ANSP 2753 cited 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, but selection rejected 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—this specimen is the female illustrated on plate 28 in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls, see data in 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, and it may well have been obtained after publication of Strix castanops Gould, 1837 in the years between 1837 and mid 1840s, e.g., on Gould's visit to Tasmania in 1939].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (?lost), TAS (as Terrâ Van Diemen).

Generic Combinations

• Tyto novaehollandiae castanops (Gould, 1837).

Distribution

States

Tasmania

Extra Distribution Information

Confined to TAS mainland and Maria Is. Introduced and established on Lord Howe Is.

IBRA

Tas: Ben Lomond (BEL), Flinders (FLI), King (KIN), Tasmanian Central Highlands (TCH), Tasmanian Northern Midlands (TNM), Tasmanian Northern Slopes (TNS), Tasmanian South East (TSE), Tasmanian Southern Ranges (TSR), Tasmanian West (TWE)

IMCRA

Lord Howe Province (14)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Lord Howe Island
  • Tasmania

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal/opportunistic breeder, sexually dimorphic, general carnivore, roosts in hollows and holes by day, hunts through eucalypt forest and woodland at night, nests all seasons on bed of chips and debris in tree hollows or holes, the female brooding.

General References

Fleay, D. 1949. The Tasmanian Masked Owl. The Emu 48: 169-176 (plumages, feeding, nidification, sexual dimorphism)

Hill, L.H. 1955. Notes on the habits and breeding of the Tasmanian Masked Owl. The Emu 55: 203-210 (behaviour, breeding, plumages)

Hindwood, K.A. 1940. The birds of Lord Howe Island. The Emu 40: 1-86 pl. 1 (introduction)

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

History of changes

• Tyto galei Mathews, G.M. 1914. Additions to "A List of the Birds of Australia". South Australian Ornithologist 1(2): 12-13 [12].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629449 ♂ (G.M. Mathew's coll. no. unspecified), Pascoe River, Cape York Peninsula, QLD
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (44); 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.

Generic Combinations

• Tyto novaehollandiae galei (Mathews, 1914).

Distribution

States

Queensland

Extra Distribution Information

Cape York Peninsula, probably south to lower Mitchell-Gilbert Rivers on west coast and to region of Endeavour River on east.

IBRA

Qld: Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), NSW North Coast (NNC), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, opportunistic breeder, sexually dimorphic, general carnivore, presumably occurring in eucalypt forests and denser woodlands, but general biology still to be clarified.

General References

Mason, I.J. 1983. A new subspecies of Masked Owl Tyto novaehollandiae (Stephens) from southern New Guinea. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 103: 123-128 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 (cf. Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp. [288]; 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)] (taxonomic status)

History of changes

• Tyto novaehollandiae kimberli Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [257] [holotype collected by F.M. House (or his party) on July 31, 1901 on Kimberley Exploring Expedition (G.M. Storr, pers. comm.)—specimen also attributed in error to J.T. Tunney, who was in the Pilbara on the recorded date of collection, but in whose hand the label is written (M.K. Le Croy, in litt.; cf. Whittell, H.M. 1954. The Literature of Australian Birds: a History and Bibliography of Australian Ornithology. Perth : Paterson Brokensha xi 116 788 pp.; 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 data:

   Holotype AMNH 629443 ♀ (=♂?)* (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 4485), Upper Calder River, west Kimberley Division, WA (as East Kimberley), (according to G.M. Storr (pers. comm.), cf. Greenway (1978))
  Comment: for identification of holotype and its sex, see Mees (1964: 45, 57); Greenway (1978).

  Type locality references:

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

Generic Combinations

• Tyto novaehollandiae kimberli (Mathews, 1912).

Distribution

States

Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal N Australia, west to King Sound, WA, east to the south rim of Gulf of Carpentaria, QLD, and rarely more than 200 km inland.

IBRA

NT, Qld, WA: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Arnhem (CA), Central Kimberley (CK), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Gulf Fall and Uplands (GFU), Gulf Coastal (GUC), Gulf Plains (GUP), Mount Isa Inlier (MII), Northern Kimberley (NK), NSW North Coast (NNC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), South Eastern Queensland (SEQ), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB), Wet Tropics (WT)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N Gulf, N coastal
  • Queensland: N Gulf, NE coastal
  • Western Australia: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, seasonal/opportunistic breeder, sexually dimorphic, general carnivore, roosts in hollows and holes by day, hunts through eucalypt forest and woodland by night, nests all seasons on bed of chips and debris in tree hollows or holes, the female brooding.

General 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] (habitat, behaviour, diet, nidification, morphology)

History of changes

• Tyto novaehollandiae melvillensis Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [35] [as Tyto novae-hollandiae melvillensis; published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629444 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 10795), Cooper's Camp, Apsley Strait, Melville Island, NT (as Melville Island)
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (44); 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.

Generic Combinations

• Tyto novaehollandiae melvillensis (Mathews, 1912).

Distribution

States

Northern Territory

Extra Distribution Information

Endemic to Melville Is.-Bathurst Is.

Australian Endemic.

IBRA

NT: Arnhem Coast (ARC), Arnhem Plateau (ARP), Central Arnhem (CA), Daly Basin (DAB), Darwin Coastal (DAC), Ord Victoria Plain (OVP), Pine Creek (PCK), Tiwi Cobourg (TIW), Victoria Bonaparte (VB)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • Northern Territory: N coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, opportunistic breeder, sexually dimorphic, general carnivore, presumably occurring in eucalypt forests and denser woodlands, but general biology still to be clarified.

General 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] (morphology)

History of changes

• Strix novaehollandiae Stephens, J.F. 1826. In, General Zoology or Systematic Natural History, commenced by the late George Shaw, M.D.F.R.S. & C. Aves. London : J. & A. Arch etc. Vol. XIII Pt II 290 pp. pls 31-63. [published Feb. 1826, publication dated 1825, 1826] [61] [as St? Novaehollandiae; based on the Mouse Owl in Latham, J. 1821. A General History of Birds. Winchester : J. Latham Vol. I xxxii 375 pp. 17 pls (358), in turn based possibly on Thomas Watling drawing no. 23 in BMNH, now missing, see 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] (382), cf. 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. (112)].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (lost, possibly figured on Thomas Watling drawing no. 23 in BMNH, now missing), New South Wales (as New Holland).

  Type locality references:

  Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912].
• Strix personata Vigors, N.A. 1831. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, April 12, 1831. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1830–31: 60 [publication dated as 1830–1831] [60] [junior homonym of Strix personata Daudin, 1800 (=Pulsatrix perspicillata (Latham, 1790), Strigidae); based on two live birds then in captivity in the Zoological Gardens, London, but evidently not preserved—not cited as in BMNH by 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 (304), nor by Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.; syntype possibly illustrated as fig. 1 (face) on pl. 51 in Gould, J. 1838. A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia, and the Adjacent Islands. London : J. Gould 73 pls 8 pp. [Pt 3, published Apr. 1838, publication dated as 1837-1838]].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown (lost), New South Wales (as Australia).

  Type locality references:

  Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (cf. Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pts 2–4 pp. 153–440 pls 245–274 [May 1916, publication dated as 1915–1916] [383]).
• Strix cyclops Gould, J. 1837. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, Dec. 13, 1836. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1836: 139-140 [published June 1837, publication dated 1836] [140] [as Cyclops; type possibly illustrated as fig. 2 (face) on pl. 52 in Gould, J. 1838. A Synopsis of the Birds of Australia, and the Adjacent Islands. London : J. Gould 73 pls 8 pp. [Pt 3, published Apr. 1838, publication dated as 1837-1838]; ANSP 2742 cited 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, but selection rejected 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—this specimen is the male illustrated on plate 29 in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls, see data in 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, and may well have been obtained after publication of Stryx cyclops Gould, 1837 in the years between 1837 and mid 1840s; Athene leucopsis 'Mathews, 1912' (=Gould, 1838) introduced as replacement name by Mathews, G.M. 1927. Systema Avium Australasianarum. A systematic list of the birds of the Australasian region. London : British Ornithologists' Union Pt 1 iv 426 pp., drawn from incorrect presumption of nomina nuda in Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additional notes. Austral Avian Records 1: 127–128—but Athene leucopsis Gould, 1838 = Ninox boobook leucopsis (Gould, 1838), q.v.].

  Type data:

   Holotype whereabouts unknown (?lost), New South Wales (as Novâ Cambriâ Australi).
• Tyto novaehollandiae perplexa Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [257].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 6294440 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 4484), East Beverley, WA
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (43); 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.
• Tyto novaehollandiae mackayi Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [34] [as Tyto novae-hollandiae mackayi; published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629451 unsexed (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 6400), Mackay, QLD
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (45); 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.
• Tyto novaehollandiae whitei Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [34] [as Tyto novae-hollandiae whitei; published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629456 unsexed (=♂)* (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 913), Adelaide, SA
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Mees, G.F. 1964. A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65: 1–62 (43); 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.
• Tyto novaehollandiae riordani Mathews, G.M. 1912. Additions and corrections to my Reference List to the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 1(2): 25-52 [Date published 2 Apr 1912] [35] [as Tyto novae-hollandiae riordani; published anonymously—authorship credited in Austral Avian Rec. 1: 65; holotype figured on pl. 272 and described in detail on pp. 374–375 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 629453 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 11104), Warrnambool, VIC (as Victoria (Warnambool))
  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.
• Tyto longimembris dombraini Mathews, G.M. 1914. Additions and corrections to my List of the Birds of Australia. Austral Avian Records 2(5): 83-107 [Date published 24 Sep 1914] [91] [misidentification with Tyto longimembris (Jerdon, 1839) corrected by 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] (393–394); two syntypes recorded by 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, but Mathews' account in his The Birds of Australia (loc. cit.) shows that he based dombraini on only the male forwarded to him by E.A. D'Ombrain].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629454 ♂ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. unspecified), Casterton, VIC (as Victoria).

  Type locality references:

  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] [394].
• Tyto nullarborensis Barrett, C. 1931. Australian Birds & Butterflies. Series 3. Melbourne : Sun Nature Book Series 44 pp. [11] [as Nullarborensis; published with brief diagnosis and photograph of a mounted skin, a syntype, which is untraced; published without specified date, probably between 1930 and 1931 according to McAllan, I.A.W. & Bruce, M.D. 1989. The Birds of New South Wales A Working List. Turramurra, New South Wales : Biocon Research Group vii 103 pp. [publication dated 1988, published May 1989]—so latter year accepted as date publication under intention of ICZN Art. 12].

  Type data:

   Syntype(s) whereabouts unknown (?lost), Nullarbor Plain.
• Tyto novaehollandiae troughtoni Cayley, N.W. 1931. What Bird is That? A Guide to the Birds of Australia. Sydney : Angus & Robertson xix 315 pp. XXXVI pls. [32] [as Tyto novae-hollandiae troughtoni; holotype illustrated as fig. 4 on pl. V in original description].

  Type data:

   Holotype AM 0.26568 ♀, Ooldea, East-West Line, SA
  Comment: for identification of holotype, see Hindwood, K.A. 1946. A list of the types and paratypes of birds from Australian localities in the Australian Museum, Sydney, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 21: 386–393; Longmore, N.W. 1991. Type specimens of birds in the Australian Museum. Technichal Report of the Australian Museum n 4: 1–42.

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] [74, 77]

Generic Combinations

• Tyto novaehollandiae novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826).

Distribution

States

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

Extra Distribution Information

Coastal and subcoastal east, south and western Australia, north at least to the Daintree-Barron-upper Mitchell-Gilbert River drainages, NE QLD, in the east and to the Gascoyne River (Carnarvon), WA, in the west (specimen in ANWC)—and rarely more than 500 km inland, being largely restricted to coastal and inner west scarps of Great Dividing Range in east, also in caves on Nullarbor Plain, SA, WA (extinct?)—records from Canning Stock Route, WA, need confirmation.

IBRA

NSW, Qld, SA, Vic, WA: Australian Alps (AA), Avon Wheatbelt (AW), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Broken Hill Complex (BHC), Carnarvon (CAR), Channel Country (CHC), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Coolgardie (COO), Cobar Peneplain (CP), Central Ranges (CR), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Dampierland (DL), Darling Riverine Plains (DRP), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Esperance Plains (ESP), Eyre Yorke Block (EYB), Finke (FIN), Flinders Lofty Block (FLB), Flinders (FLI), Gascoyne (GAS), Gawler (GAW), Gibson Desert (GD), Geraldton Sandplains (GS), Great Sandy Desert (GSD), Great Victoria Desert (GVD), Hampton (HAM), Jarrah Forest (JF), Kanmantoo (KAN), Little Sandy Desert (LSD), Mallee (MAL), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Mulga Lands (ML), Murchison (MUR), Nandewar (NAN), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), New England Tablelands (NET), NSW North Coast (NNC), NSW South Western Slopes (NSS), Nullarbor (NUL), Pilbara (PIL), 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), Tanami (TAN), Victorian Midlands (VM), Victorian Volcanic Plain (VVP), Warren (WAR), Wet Tropics (WT), Yalgoo (YAL)

Original AFD Distribution Data

Australian Region

• Australia
  • New South Wales: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Queensland: Murray-Darling basin, NE coastal
  • South Australia: Lake Eyre basin, S Gulfs
  • Victoria: Murray-Darling basin, SE coastal
  • Western Australia: NW coastal, SW coastal, W plateau

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, opportunistic breeder, sexually dimorphic, general carnivore, roosts usually in hollows and holes (cliffs) by day, hunts through eucalypt forests and close woodlands by night, rarely into open country, nests autumn to spring on bed of chips and debris in tree hollows or holes, the female brooding.

General References

Elliott, A.J. 1935. Some notes on two Masked Owl nestlings. The Emu 34: 196-199 (downy plumages)

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

Mees, G.F. 1963. The status and distribution of some species of owls in Western Australia. Western Australian Naturalist 8: 166-169 [publication date Mathews, G.M. 1920. Dates of ornithological works. Austral Avian Records 4: 1–27 Mathews, G.M. 1925. The Birds of Australia. Supplements 4 & 5. Bibliography of the Birds of Australia Pts 1 & 2. London : H.F. & G. Witherby viii 149 pp. Zimmer, J.T. 1926. Catalogue of the Edward E. Ayer Ornithological Library. Field Museum of Natural History Publications, Zoological Series 16: 1–364 (Pt 1, Publ. 239), 365–706 (Pt 2, Publ. 240)] (Western Australian distribution)

Parker, S.A. 1977. The distribution and occurrence in South Australia of owls of the genus Tyto. South Australian Ornithologist 27: 207-215 [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] (South Australian distribution)

Roberts, G.J. 1983. Observations of Masked Owls in the Gloucester area, New South Wales. Australian Birds 18: 13-14 (voice, nidification, territorial behaviour)

Wakefield, N. 1960. Recent mammal bones in the Buchan District –2. Victorian Naturalist 77: 227-240 (diet)

History of changes

Generic Combinations

• Tyto tenebricosa (Gould, 1845).

Taxonomic Decision for Subspecies Arrangement

• 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] [65, 69]

Introduction

Following Christidis and Boles (2008: 167), the previously recognised species, T. multipunctata is recognised as a subspecies of T. tenebricosa, thus altering the concept of T. tenebricosa to which the CAVS number of #253 was applied, and necessitating allocation of a new number (#9924).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders (FLI), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), NSW North Coast (NNC), 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: SE coastal
  • Queensland: NE coastal
  • Victoria: Bass Strait, SE coastal

General References

Christidis, L. & Boles, W.E. 2008. Systematics and Taxonomy of Australian Birds. Melbourne : CSIRO Publishing 288 pp. [166-167]

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

Eck, S. & Busse, H. 1973. Eulen Die rezenten und fossilen Formen Aves, Strigidae. Wittenberg, Lutherstadt : A. Ziemsen (Die Neue Brehm-Bücherei). 196 pp. [64] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement also subsequent revisions)

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

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

Rothschild, W. & Hartert, E. 1913. On some Australian forms of Tyto. Novitates Zoologicae 20: 280-284 (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

Sibley, C.G. & Monroe, B.L., Jr 1990. Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World. New Haven : Yale University Press xxiv 1111 pp. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

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. (presenting alternative taxonomic arrangement)

History of changes

• Strix tenebricosa Gould, J. 1845. In Proceedings of meeting of Zoological Society of London, July 22, 1845. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1845: 80 [80] [as tenebricosus, the termination of this adjectival name being corrected here under ICZN Art. 31(b); for identification of type material, see 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; 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; although ANSP 2755 presumed holotype 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, there is no evidence that the second specimen in BMNH quoted by Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls (text to pl. 30) was not available for the original description—until such evidence is forthcoming, both specimens should be treated as syntypes, in which circumstances ANSP 2755 becomes lectotype under ICZN Art. 74(a); this specimen, a male by measurement (cf. 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), is figured on pl. 30 in Gould, J. 1848. The Birds of Australia. London : J. Gould Vol. 1 cii 13 pp. 36 pls; the paralectotype is probably one of the three specimens of Strix tenebricosa Gould, 1845 cited in BMNH by 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 (307)—it is not quoted as a type by Warren, R.L.M. 1966. Type-specimens of Birds in the British Museum (Natural History). Vol. 1 Non-Passerines. London : British Museum ix 320 pp.].

  Type data:

   Lectotype ANSP 2755 unsexed (=♂)* (Verreaux cat. no. 144), Clarence River, NSW (as the brushes of the river Clarence).
  Paralectotype(s) BMNH no. unspecified, Clarence River, NSW (as the brushes of the river Clarence).

  Subsequent designation references:

  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 [Date published 28 Feb 1913].
• Strix megaera Bonaparte, C.L. 1850. Conspectus Generum Avium. Tom. I. Lugduni, Batavorum : E.J. Brill 543 pp. [Date published 24 Jun 1850] [54] [as synonym of Strix tenebricosa Gould, 1845, and unavailable under ICZN Art. 11(e)].
• Tyto tenebricosa magna Mathews, G.M. 1912. A Reference-List to the Birds of Australia. Novitates Zoologicae 18: 171-455 [Date published 31 Jan 1912] [258] [holotype described in detail on pp. 404–405 in Mathews, G.M. 1916. The Birds of Australia. London : Witherby & Co. Vol. 5 pts 2–4 pp. 153–440 pls 245–274 [May 1916, publication dated as 1915–1916]].

  Type data:

   Holotype AMNH 629494 ♀ (G.M. Mathews' coll. no. 4341), VIC (as 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.

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] [65]

Generic Combinations

• Tyto tenebricosa tenebricosa (Gould, 1845).

Distribution

States

New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria

Extra Distribution Information

Restricted to coastal SE Australia and east scarps of Great Dividing Range, north to the Bunya, Jimna-Conondale and Blackall Ranges, QLD, with northern outlier on Clarke Range (?), south to Dandenong Ranges and central highlands of VIC (Mt Macedon region)—(?)accidental on Flinders Is., Bass Strait, where no recent records.

IBRA

NSW, Qld, Vic: Australian Alps (AA), Brigalow Belt North (BBN), Brigalow Belt South (BBS), Central Mackay Coast (CMC), Cape York Peninsula (CYP), Desert Uplands (DEU), Einasleigh Uplands (EIU), Flinders (FLI), Murray Darling Depression (MDD), Naracoorte Coastal Plain (NCP), NSW North Coast (NNC), 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: SE coastal
  • Queensland: NE coastal
  • Victoria: Bass Strait, SE coastal

Ecological Descriptors

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

Extra Ecological Information

Randomly dispersed, opportunistic breeder, sexually dimorphic, general carnivore, roosts in hollows, tree canopy and caves, hunts in rainforests and dense, wet eucalypt forests adjacent, nests all seasons (?except winter) on bed of chips and debris in tree hollows, the female brooding.

General References

Beruldsen, G.R. 1986. Observations on the Sooty Owl Tyto tenebricosa in south-east Queensland. Australian Bird Watcher 11: 230-236 (ecology, behaviour, nidification)

Fleay, D. 1968. Nightwatchmen of Bush and Plain. Australian owls and owl-like birds. Brisbane : Jacaranda Press 163 pp. (general biology, voice, behaviour in captivity)

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

Smith, P. 1984. Prey items of the Sooty Owl and the Barn Owl at Bega, New South Wales. Corella 8: 71-72 (diet)

History of changes