Powerful Owl Ninox strenua

Powerful Owls (PO) are the biggest Australian owls and are found in South-East Australia in the forests of the Great Dividing Range and along the east coast. Their body lengths are go up to almost 70 cm and they weigh around 1500 grams. The Powerful Owl's voice is a mournful and sounds like "woo-hoo". An example can be found here:

It is thought that PO pair up for life, but it has been found that birds that loose a mate have paired up with a new partner the following breeding season. Powerful Owls hunt predominantly arboreal mammals and large birds which are caught at their roosts. The birds breed during winter starting from mid-May to mid-June. The nest is a large hollow, very often in the trunk of a big eucalypt.

I have seen these birds around Sydney and also with the support from Matt Wright from faunagrapic in Queensland in April 2017. We witnessed the re-bonding of a pair of Powerful Owls just prior to the breeding season, where he was presenting food to her. She can be seen in one of the photos eating a possum.

Enjoy and if you like, feel free to provide comments via the Contact page!