Jason Estep is an American birder who saw, and photographed, two Tyto owls while in FNQ. Jason’s email regarding these owls is below and his photos are attached (if you do not receive the attachments, or cannot open them, please reply to me and I will forward them on to you).
Would any owl aficionados care to offer an opinion as to which species these two owls are? (Jason has asked that he be included in any correspondence – he is now back at home in Ohio [in 10 below freezing temperatures] and is not on the Birding-aus mailing list.)
Regards. Richard Nowotny (in Melbourne).
From: Jason Estep [mailto:rthummingbirds@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, 6 December 2010 12:37 AM Subject: Owl photos from Cairns area
These are photos of two different owls that I saw while in the Cairns area. F…, I met you on the Esplanade and showed you the tree this Esplanade owl was perched in next to the cannon.
Feel free to pass this email on to as many people as you would like.
The Cairns esplanade owl was seen on 8 Oct 2010 perched high in a tree facing the ocean.
The Hasties Swamp owl was seen on 18 Oct 2010. It was perched in the road that goes to the bird hide at the swamp. The habitat here was a huge area of farmland / grassland. During the day time this area was hosting large numbers of Whistling Kites & Black Kites.
Please read my comments (below) on these photos after looking at them and deciding for yourself what you think the birds might be. I am trying not to bias anyone with the markings that I am looking at.
I agree with Nikolas that the two birds in the photos are Eastern Barn Owls. I have studied the Tyto owls, mostly as roadkills, and prepared a key to the owls of Australia. The unfeathered lower legs and the colouration and the black and white spots on the upperparts fit the Barn Owl. The legs of the Hasties Swamp bird are too short for a Grass Owl and the upperparts are too pale. The spots on a Grass Owl show only as white and not black and white. All photos are a little dark and therefore suggest that the birds are darker than they really are. If you brighten the pictures you will see that they have the typical Barn Owl colouration and markings.
If anyone wants a copy of my owl key I can email it to them.
Regards
Greg Clancy Ecologist Coutts Crossing NSW
Hi Jason,
I think that both birds are Eastern Barn Owls. However, this is not an easy chapter of bird ID – so I may be wrong.
I believe that the plumage of the Cairns Esplanade bird doesn’t rule out Eastern Barn Owl. In addition, although there admittedly is not much to see of them in the photos, the feet appear to be “normal” sized, whereas in Masked Owl they should be ridiculously huge. The latter is another difficult chapter, since the northern populations of Masked Owl are smaller than the southern populations. Finally, the habitat doesn’t really fit Masked Owl.
Also the Hasties bird looks like an Eastern Barn Owl to me. This bird is too large-eyed, round-faced and short-legged for an Eastern Grass Owl.
Hope that doesn’t disappoint you too much. Let’s see what others will say.
Best wishes,
Nikolas