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Bird spotting

What makes an Owl an Owl?
By Rex Fisher

This magnificent creature recently visited our garden and inspired me to write a few notes about Owls. It flew into a palm and obligingly stayed the day, although it initially had to contend with an absolutely raucous tirade from just about every other bird species around. Note the dark “goggles” around the eyes; they distinguish it as a Southern Boobook rather than the similar but larger Barking Owl. Boobooks make the often heard mo-poke or more-pork call (amongst others), and it is probably the most common owl that we will see or hear. The funny thing is I have never heard one calling around here, and have not met anyone else who has seen one here either. Why did it just turn up?

The Boobook is the smallest of our owls and feeds on insects or small vertebrates. The Powerful Owl, with talons the size of a man’s fingers, is our biggest and takes prey up to the size of possums. It can sometimes be seen holding these in one claw whilst roosting during the day. Its usual call is more like the classic whooo hooo of fairy tales. The Barking Owl’s call is wook wook very similar to a dog, but it can also come up with an eerie “frightened woman” scream and I know a pretty tough bushman who once grabbed his rifle to go to the aid of such a “victim” – there are many stories about it. The three species mentioned are this region’s representatives of the Ninox group; their standard call is in two parts and they have less pronounced dish shaping in their face.

The Tyto’s that you might see in this area are the Masked, Sooty, Barn and Grass Owls. They have a very dish shaped face and their standard calls are like screams.

Owls are raptors ie they capture prey with their feet. This distinguishes them from other night hunters such as Frogmouths, Nightjars and Owlet-Nightjars which use their adapted bills and bristles to capture prey; they actually have fairly small feet. The Owl’s feet are not only sharp clawed and rough to aid with capture but they have the ability to swing one talon backwards to increase their strike area when they plunge. Daylight raptors hold 3 toes forward and one back at all times as they can see their prey at the time of capture – however an owl’s prey is likely to be located by sound and this 2 forward 2 back adaptation increases their chances of striking and holding.

An Owl’s large, forward looking eyes are fixed in position and are more tuned to light sensitivity than they are to colour variations which are not so evident at night. Its highly flexible neck with about 270o rotation and “back flip” capability compensates for the eyes’ fixed, forward position. The bill is downturned and sharp, capable of tearing at its prey - the Powerful Owl’s bill is a very scary, formidable looking instrument.

Another critical characteristic of Owls is their silent, stealthy flight enabled by soft feathers and comb like structures on their forewings. In contrast a high speed daylight raptor can sound like a small jet fighter; at their speed they do not need silence although their pursuits may well start from stealthy positions.

In sharing these happy Owl experiences I would like to acknowledge Greg Czechura from the Qld Museum who taught me a great deal about raptors.

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