I have the fascinating and wonderfully illustrated new Owls of the World- A Photographic Guide by Heimo Mikkola, which closely follows Konig and Weick’s second edition “Owls of the World” taxonomy and includes many shall we say proactive potential splits. Barn Owl has been subdivided at last and many island taxa get elevated to species level, including something called the Boang Barn Owl from a tiny island off New ireland. There is now the American Barn Owl Tyto furcata as distinct from our own T. delicatula, and much to my amazement the author makes the claim that this American Barn Owl is the taxon that was introduced to Lord Howe island. I’d always understood these are Masked Owls, so this was something of a surprise and may of course be in error, but has anyone heard anything about this?
The book is a great read and has wonderful photos, with a profusion of new Scops Owls from SE Asia and Wallacea. Oddly it regards the basically unknown Manus Masked Owl Tyto manusi known from 2 specimens and unseen since the 1930’s, as a subspecies of Masked Owl, which I find very strange and illogical. This is probably the least known New Guinea bird, and bizarrely classified as Vulnerable by BirdLife, when surely Data Deficient should be the category?)
Phil Gregory
Website 2: Http://www.cassowary-house.com.au
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Comments
One response to “Lord Howe Masked Owls?”
Although only the masked owl survives on Lord Howe today, several species of owls were introduced there, including boobooks from eastern Australia, the masked owl, the Australian barn owl, the American barn owl and the great horned owl.
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/rats-lord-howes-owls-may-be-sent-home-to-roost-20100622-yvs2.html
Sent: Sunday, 17 March 2013 3:03 PM
I have the fascinating and wonderfully illustrated new Owls of the World- A Photographic Guide by Heimo Mikkola, which closely follows Konig and Weick’s second edition “Owls of the World” taxonomy and includes many shall we say proactive potential splits. Barn Owl has been subdivided at last and many island taxa get elevated to species level, including something called the Boang Barn Owl from a tiny island off New ireland. There is now the American Barn Owl Tyto furcata as distinct from our own T. delicatula, and much to my amazement the author makes the claim that this American Barn Owl is the taxon that was introduced to Lord Howe island. I’d always understood these are Masked Owls, so this was something of a surprise and may of course be in error, but has anyone heard anything about this?
The book is a great read and has wonderful photos, with a profusion of new Scops Owls from SE Asia and Wallacea. Oddly it regards the basically unknown Manus Masked Owl Tyto manusi known from 2 specimens and unseen since the 1930’s, as a subspecies of Masked Owl, which I find very strange and illogical. This is probably the least known New Guinea bird, and bizarrely classified as Vulnerable by BirdLife, when surely Data Deficient should be the category?)
Phil Gregory
Website 2: http://www.cassowary-house.com.au/
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To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org/ =============================== ===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
http://birding-aus.org ===============================