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RUFOUS OWL FACTS |
Description
A large owl with rufous-brown back, wings and tail. Underparts are pale brown with many fine rufous brown bars. Tail pale brown with broad darker bars. Large yellow eyes. Body size 45 to 55cm.
Australia’s second largest owl and the largest in the tropical north. It is a powerful night hunter of arboreal mammals such as possums, sugar gliders and flying foxes, which it snatches from tree branches or foliage. It also feeds on other birds, large beetles, stick insects and other insects. It occurs either singularly or in pairs in a large territory and usually roosts in the same tall leafy tree during the day. Its call is a low mournful 'woo-hoo'. The nest is in the hollow of a tall tree and is lined with dry leaves and twigs; 1 or 2 creamy round eggs are laid.
Author credit: Terry Mahney / Charles Darwin University
Habitat
Rainforest, monsoon forest and densely-timbered watercourse corridors, as well as botanic gardens (e.g. Darwin).
Food
Carnivore
Range
Northern Australia.
Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Species Description is from Museums Field Guide, Atlas of Living Australia at website at https://lists.ala.org.au Licensed under Creative Commons Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Classification
| Class: | Aves | | Order: | Strigiformes | | Family: | Strigidae | | Genus: | Ninox | | Species: | rufa | | Common Name: | Rufous Owl |
Relatives in same Genus
Barking Owl (N. connivens)
Boobook Owl (N. novaeseelandiae)
Brown Hawk-Owl (N. scutulata)
Powerful Owl (N. strenua)
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