The Powerful Owl also known as the Powerful Boobok, is a species of owl

Owl

Owls are a group of birds that belong to the order Strigiformes, constituting 200 bird of prey species. Most are solitary and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, although a few species specialize in hunting fish...

 native to south-eastern and eastern Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, the largest owl on that continent. It is found in coastal areas, the Great Dividing Range

Great Dividing Range

The Great Dividing Range, or the Eastern Highlands, is Australia's most substantial mountain range and the third longest in the world. The range stretches more than 3,500 km from Dauan Island off the northeastern tip of Queensland, running the entire length of the eastern coastline through...

 no more than 200 km inland.The name Powerful Bookbok is very rarely used as a common name in Australia but the name does appear on the ICUN Red List.

Description

The Powerful Owl has large yellow eyes, grey-brown V-barring on all features and dull yellow feet. They are aptly named, with very powerful and heavy claws. This owl is the largest species of the "hawk owl" group. This species measures 45–65 cm (17.7–25.6 in) in length and spans 112–135 cm (44.1–53.1 in). Unlike in most owl species, the male, at 1.15–1.7 kg (2.5–3.7 lb) is slightly larger than the female, at 1.05–1.6 kg (2.3–3.5 lb).

Distribution

Range is from Eungella in Queensland

Queensland

Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...

 south to the central highlands

Central highlands (Victoria)

The Central Highlands is a region of Victoria. This term is mainly used in a geological context to describe the part of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria that is outside of the Alpine areas. The area is situated east of Ballarat, south of Bendigo, north and east of Melbourne, west of the Alpine...

 of Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....

 and west to Mount Burr

Mount Burr, South Australia

Mount Burr is a small town located in the South East of South Australia, about 12 km east of Millicent and about 50 km northeast of Mount Gambier. At the 2006 census, Mount Burr had a population of 380.-Geography:...

 in South Australia

South Australia

South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

.

Conservation status

Powerful Owls are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places...

. However, their conservation status varies from state to state within Australia. For example:

• The Powerful Owl is listed as threatened on the Victorian Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act (1988). Under this Act, an Action Statement for the recovery and future management of this species has been prepared.
• On the 2007 advisory list of threatened vertebrate fauna in Victoria, the Powerful Owl is listed as vulnerable
  Vulnerable species
  On 30 January 2010, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species identified 9694 Vulnerable species, subspecies and varieties, stocks and sub-populations.-References:...
  
  .
• On the New South Wales Threatened Species Conservation Act the Powerful Owl is scheduled as Vulnerable.

Habitat

Habitat includes mountain and coastal forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, gullies, forest margins, woodlands including sparse hilly woodlands, scrub, plantation

Plantation

A plantation is a long artificially established forest, farm or estate, where crops are grown for sale, often in distant markets rather than for local on-site consumption...

s and urban and rural parks and gardens.

Reproduction

Usually found in breeding pairs in a large territory, it nests from May to September in hollow tree trunks 8–30 metres above the ground. The nesting material includes decaying debris and leaf litter. Eggs are oval and dull white. One to two and rarely three are laid per breeding season. It can be found in many places throughout Australia, mainly the coast of New South Wales and Victoria.

Foraging

The Powerful Owl is a nocturnal predator of forests and woodlands. Its diet consists of flighted mammals such as grey-headed flying-fox

Grey-headed Flying Fox

The Grey-headed Flying-Fox, Pteropus poliocephalus, is a megabat native to Australia.Members of the genus Pteropus include the largest bats in the world. The Pteropus genus has currently about 57 recognised species....

, (Pteropus poliocephalus), arboreal marsupials such as the Greater Glider

Greater Glider

The Greater Glider is a small gliding marsupial found in Australia. It is not closely related to the Petaurus group of gliding marsupials but instead to the Lemur-like Ringtail Possum , with which it shares the subfamily Hemibelideinae.The Greater Glider is nocturnal and is a solitary herbivore...

, ringtail possums

Pseudocheiridae

Pseudocheiridae is a family of arboreal marsupials containing 17 extant species of ringtailed possums and close relatives. They are found in forested areas and shrublands throughout Australia and New Guinea.-Characteristics:...

, brushtail possum

Brushtail possum

The brushtail possums are the members of the genus, Trichosurus, a genus of marsupial in the Phalangeridae family.It contains the following species:*Northern Brushtail Possum, Trichosurus arnhemensis...

s, Koala

Koala

The koala is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia, and the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae....

, Sugar Glider

Sugar Glider

The sugar glider is a small gliding possum originating from the marsupial family.The sugar glider is native to eastern and northern mainland Australia and is also native to New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago.- Habitat :Sugar gliders can be found all throughout the northern and eastern parts of...

 and Feathertail Glider

Feathertail Glider

The Feathertail Glider , also known as the Pygmy Gliding Possum, Pygmy Glider, Pygmy Phalanger, Flying Phalanger and Flying Mouse, is the world's smallest gliding possum and is named for its long feather-shaped tail. Although only the size of a very small mouse , it can leap and glide up to 25 metres...

, nocturnal birds such as the Tawny Frogmouth

Tawny Frogmouth

The Tawny Frogmouth is an Australian species of frogmouth, a type of bird found throughout the Australian mainland, Tasmania and southern New Guinea. The Tawny Frogmouth is often mistaken to be an owl...

 and roosting diurnal birds such as cockatoo

Cockatoo

A cockatoo is any of the 21 species belonging to the bird family Cacatuidae. Along with the Psittacidae and the Strigopidae , they make up the parrot order Psittaciformes . Placement of the cockatoos as a separate family is fairly undisputed, although many aspects of the other living lineages of...

s and parrot

Parrot

Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...

s, kookaburra

Kookaburra

Kookaburras are terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea. They are large to very large, with a total length of . The name is a loanword from Wiradjuri guuguubarra, and is onomatopoeic of its call...

s, currawong

Currawong

Currawongs are three species of medium-sized passerine birds belonging to the genus Strepera in the family Artamidae native to Australasia. These are the Grey Currawong , Pied Currawong , and Black Currawong . The common name comes from the call of the familiar Pied Currawong of eastern Australia...

s and honeyeater

Honeyeater

The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family of small to medium sized birds most common in Australia and New Guinea, but also found in New Zealand, the Pacific islands as far east as Samoa and Tonga, and the islands to the north and west of New Guinea known as Wallacea...

s. Insects are taken on the wing. The vast majority of prey is taken from trees including unlikely items such as rock-wallabies

Rock-wallaby

The rock-wallabies are the wallabies of the genus Petrogale.-Description:The medium-sized, often colourful and extremely agile rock-wallabies live where rocky, rugged and steep terrain can provide daytime refuge...

that sometimes take refuge in trees.

External links

• Powerful Owl Action Statement
• Powerful Owl - Ninox strenua. Also known as Great Hawk Owl
• North East Forest Alliance
• Powerful Owl (Ninox strenua) Dedicated Resource
• "Meet Olivia, a modern girl in owl clothes" - The Age - a Powerful Owl moves into Melbourne's Flagstaff Gardens.
• ABC Science information on the Powerful Owl