Boobook or Morepork Owl - Mid-Flight Snatchers

Ocher bellied

The morepork or boobook is called that not because it eats pig or reads books but because that is what it sounds like its saying when it calls out in the dusky night. This owl is the most distributed in Australasia, mostly Australia (including Tasmania) and New Zealand but also Southeast Asia and New Guinea. The are stoutly built, some are dark brown and others lighter with spots, and there are some with reddish feathers and still others with yellowish ocher bellies.

They can live in the forest, scrub lands, or the open countryside. They use caves for roosting and lay eggs in the hollows of trees or else in thick protected vegetation. Normally nocturnal, the boobook will go out hunting in the day on occasion, looking for rats, mice, lizards, spiders, insects and even small birds. Interestingly, the bird is very good at snatching insects and birds out of the sky as they go about their business in mid-flight.

Cinnibar boobook