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

Field Guide to Australian Birds, by Michael Morcombe. This one has colour drawings of the eggs and the nests which not many other field guides do (I can't think of any that do). It's an excellent field guide and one of the four main ones (the other three being above this one). The weakness of this field guide is that some of the pictures of the birds aren't as good (or accurate) as the other three most used field guides. It's also the heaviest though there is a pocket edition which is much smaller and lighter.

Purchase from Australia (Booktopia)

Purchase from Australia (Angus & Robertson)

Slater Field Guide to Australian Birds, Peter Slater, Pat Slater and Raoul Slater. This is a smaller field guide, and its advantage is it is easy to carry around. Its size is 21.3 x 11.4 x 2.8 centimetres, or 8.4 x 4.5 x 1.1 inches in the old scale. So it is a good one to get if you want to have your field guide with you out in the field. Unlike most of the field guides it also has illustrations of the eggs of all the birds that breed in Australia. It has very good reviews on Amazon.

Click here to Purchase from Australia (Booktopia)

Purchase from Australia (Angus & Robertson)

Click here to purchase from Australia (The Nile) $28.45 AUD (May be unavailable)

Click here to purchase from Australia (Fishpond) May be expensive.

Click here to purchase from Amazon

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