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Powerful Owl

Ninox strenua

Family: Strigidae (Hawk Owls (Typical Owls), 4 species in Australia)
Size: M 67cm, F 58 cm
Distribution: Within about 300 km of the coasts of NSW, VIC and southern QLD
Status: Moderately Common
Habitat: Tall open forests, woodland. Often roost in large trees of gullies
References: Simpson and Day, Reader's Digest

The Powerful Owl is Australia's largest owl. Their sound is a slow, haunting, "wooooow wooooow", usually two "woooow's" but occasionally one.

Powerful Owl - Ninox strenua
Photo: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney NSW. High Resolution (2000 x 3008)

Powerful Owl - Ninox strenua
Photo: Featherdale Wildlife Park, Sydney NSW. High Resolution (1423 x 1864)

Powerful Owl - Ninox strenua
Artwork: John Gould, 'The Birds of Australia', 1848. Original Scanned Image.

Some Birdwatching Resources

Reader's Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds. A very very large blue hardcover book with a dust jacket that matches the cover. It is the tallest book I own, and it is so big that I have only one shelf that it fits on. You could work out by lifting it a few times. Colour photos and detailed descriptions of all the birds. Not a field guide as such (so not as good if you just want a book to learn to identify the birds). Not your usual coffee table book either because it lists every bird. Contains lots of information about every bird in Australia. Excellent.

Click here to purchase from Australia $62.49 AUD

Advanced Bird Language, Jon Young. Advanced Bird Language is an 8-CD audio set which teaches you how to interpret bird language, and other aspects of naturalist awareness. Note that these are not recordings of actual bird calls used to learn to identify which bird sounds like which call — rather they are a series of talks where Jon teaches you how to learn, by observing the birds yourself, what the birds are saying by their calls, their body language, and their other behaviours. The teachings are from North America but they apply to any country.