Known as Barking Owl due to its distinctive call which resembles that of a dog barking. Also a rarely heard blood-curdling piercing scream like a woman screaming.
Robust owl with piercing yellow eyes, distinguished from the Southern Boobook due to lack of dark eye patches and ‘goggles’. It is part of the ‘hawk owl’ genus, lacking the flat, disc-shaped face of the more widely known Tyto genus (i.e. Barn Owl). Plumage smokey brown to grey above, with large white spots on wings. Powerful feet are dull yellow. Roosts by day, often in pairs in leafy trees often holding remains of previous night’s prey. Moderately common in the Mackay, Whitsunday and Pioneer Catchments.
Feeds on mammals, insects, reptiles, amphibians and other invertebrates.
Classifications:
Bird, forest and grassland
Family:
Strigidae
Information sources:
Pizzey and Knight, The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia - Eighth Edition
