G’day all
This owl has been roosting in my garden for 9 days now. My wife Jenny and I took photos today and they can be seen at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bukoba_steve/sets/72157634040230069/
I believe this is a Tassy Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae leucopsis) – recently split by the IOC from the Southern Boobook (Ninox boobook). Others who have seen the photos have tended to agree with me.
Anyway – all comments welcome.
Hopefully I’ll get some shots from different angles but this will be difficult if it stays in the same trees.
Cheers Steve
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Hi Mike!
Yes, that’s how I remember it also. But if they were all brown birds, that would still be consistent with dispersal of young from other places in Victoria, and the temporal pattern would fit that too. A Pink coming down from the mountains could just as well find itself out on the point as a Pink coming in from the sea.
Re Flame Robins, because of their very different habitat preferences, I suppose they would be more likely to just fly a bit further and get into habitats they liked.
Interesting issue, though. Amazing how little we know about such stuff!
Cheers, Chris.
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I’d be surprised if Pink Robin wasn’t a trans-Bass Strait migrant. Back in the 1960’s & 70’s when our seabird observations were land-based we (including Chris and others) made regular, perhaps weekly visits to Cape Schanck on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. We came to ‘expect’ to find a brown Pink Robin or two each autumn in the bigger shrubs on the otherwise relatively bare tip of the promontory in the same sort of place one would look for migrants on a UK headland. They were also found at Sorrento in rather less bleak surroundings. Other regular migrants were Silvereyes and Grey Fantails but strangely I recall few Flame Robins. Vagrants possibly or assumed to be from Tasmania found there included Olive Whistler and interestingly, a Boobook. Vagrants clearly from inland Australia included a Pied Butcherbird, an Elegant Parrot, a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater and a White-backed Swallow. So the origin of the Pink Robins is not certain but is highly suggestive.
Mike Carter 30 Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza VIC 3930 Tel (03) 9787 7136
Hi Richard,
That’s interesting. I am wondering why the Tassie Pink Robins are longer-winged. This could indicate a longer migration/dispersion distance.
Just a thought.
Cheers,
Nikolas
Hi Chris, I’m not convinced that Pink Robins make the crossing, in contrast to Flame Robins. HANZAB says there is no evidence for such crossings, and Tasmanian birds are subspecifically distinct (slightly longer-winged).
In Victoria (as you know) adult male Pink Robins mainly remain all year in their breeding territories in cool temperate rainforest or wet mountain forests with similar structure, along with some brown birds (perhaps mainly adult females), although they tend to forage in more open situations (including log landings). A few adult males and lots of brown birds move into drier habitats for the winter, in foothill forests and in shady multi-stemmed habitats such as coastal teatree thickets, also in box-ironbark & regrowth river red gum, etc.
It’s a similar story in Tasmania. Reporting rates go up in winter in both states because birds are more widely dispersed and found in more accessible places. There are records from Bass Strait islands (King & Flinders), apparently referring to resident populations of the Tasmanian subspecies. I don’t know of any reports of falls of Pink Robins on Bass Strait islands or the Victorian coast, whereas such events are quite often reported for Flame Robins.
I hope this helps a bit. I wouldn’t be surprised if occasional Pink Robins crossed the strait but it seems there’s no generally accepted evidence for it and I suspect it’s the exception not the rule. It may be worth checking various reports of bird observations on small Bass Strait islands.
I look forward to hearing more about the boobooks and the Gould’s wattled bats.
Cheers, Richard.
Richard Loyn Eco Insights
4 Roderick Close Viewbank VIC 3084 ph: 03-9459 4268 mob: 0488-77 66 78
richard.loyn@bigpond.com
G’day Chris,
I think we are a long way from being convinced of anything about Tasmanian Boobooks on the mainland except that they are recorded there. The real problem is lack of effort to identify the bird in Victoria, most people don’t even know what the bird looks like let alone aware that it should be looked for. Digital photography will hopefully increase the probability that it will get photographed on the mainland but if people aren’t aware of the possibility an unidentified photograph will be just as useless as an unidentified field observation. To this end I am happy to receive as many photos as people want to send me for identification. A quote from Kevin Bartram in an email to me last night “there is quite good evidence that Tas birds migrate to the mainland during the colder months of the year. I have personally found 3 dead specimens, 2 roadkill & 1 beachwashed, all now donated to the Vic Museum. And there are also several other specimens collected during the colder months on the mainland”. So there are definitely museum specimens to go with these birds that get photographed, but I don’t think we can say if this represents a migration, or just an annual dispersal of some individuals, or even if the birds are Victorian. But they aren’t being recorded in the Wet Forests, not yet anyway, the Hamilton bird is in a suburban back yard, and another recently photographed dead bird was from Altona 2010(unfortunately it wasn’t collected). But this obviously doesn’t mean they aren’t in the Wet forests. What’s needed is for people to be aware of and start scutinizing their Victorian Boobooks for Tassy birds. We need more Kevin Bartram’s out there on the job.
Cheers Jeff.
Hi all
On a tangent, but Paul Brooks questioned that Pink Robins cross Bass Straight, which made me realise I might have been mixing up stories between Flame and Pink and various speculations based on the occurrence of Pinks in silly places at times. Does anyone know? Does Pink Robin migrate across the Straight?
Cheers, Chris.
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I had wondered that, too, Jeremy – especially when seeing Boobooks in Tassie, and just ASSUMING they were leucopsis, without always checking carefully. If the Tassie “Morepork” can travel to Vic, then it must at least be possible for mainland Boobooks to come the other way.
John Tongue Ulverstone, Tas.
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I wonder too about whether mainland boobooks are ever found in Tasmania. Barn owls have been reported in Tas in the past (and the museum has one specimen). Although the possibility of misidentification with Masked Owl is there, this must be some indication that it’s at least plausible that boobooks could also visit.
Jeremy
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Distinct possibility Chris. Not enough field observations to say one way or the other as it stands, but there’s a challenge! Boobooks and Moreporks sympatric in Victoria?? Interesting.
Hi Murray
Thanks for that – and interesting photos!
I wasn’t suggesting that breeding on the mainland and migration should be mutually exclusive! No reason why both shouldn’t happen, as is the case with Pink Robin, and I assume several other species.
My main point was that if there are summer populations as well, it could complicate the resolution of ID characters if this wasn’t recognised.
Cheers, Chris.
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Chris,
Jerry Olsen and Stephen Debus have an article in the latest issue of Australian Field Ornithology discussing migration of Tasmanian Boobooks. While I haven’t seen it yet, I believe they also raise the point you have, that perhaps these birds are residents on the mainland and not migrants.
That said, one of the few mainland specimens is from Gabo Island, and if my memory is correct there are records of boobooks landing on ships in Bass Strait, so there is anecdotal evidence pointing the other way.
At one point I obtained some Atlas data on reporting rates for Boobooks through the year in both Tasmania and Victoria. The Tasmanian numbers didn’t look that different from Victoria. So if there is migration, this tends to suggest it’s small scale.
I know that there’s some genetic work being done overseas on the whole Boobook complex so it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Nikolas Haass mentioned I have some photos of Boobook specimens. If anyone is interested they can be found at http://www.pbase.com/mklord/boobooks
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Hi all
Interesting subject!
So how convincing is the evidence that Tasmanian Boobook is only a winter visitor to the mainland? Or could it be like Pink Robin, with migration to the mainland in winter but also breeding in the wetter forests of Victoria and southern NSW?
I’m particularly interested in this, because the Gould’s Wattled Bats of Tasmania seem to me to be a different species from the widespread form on the mainland. Migration is unknown, and the Tasmanian form is found in summer in the cool, wet forests of Victoria and southern NSW, including the Otways. I don’t think anyone agrees with me on this, by the way! But an interesting side of it is that it seems the habitat of the Tasmanian form on the mainland is seriously undersampled acoustically, which is by far the best means for seeing the difference. Otherwise people would have noticed the difference long ago. The point being that people who work with bats are vastly more likely to be exposed to the much more widespread form than the more restricted Tasmanian form.
It might seem this would be less the case with Boobook Owls, but maybe not if our samples are highly biased. For example, what if a high proportion of the specimens available are from road kills, then this sample is likely to be very biased against birds breeding in the wet forests, but less biased against Tasmanian migrants in winter. It could also have consequences for our understanding of identification criteria, since if you operate from the assumption that the Tasmanian birds are winter visitors, then the apparent distinctness of the form could be diluted by occasional specimens from the wet forests in summer, seeming to contradict the general view of how the forms differ. It often turns out that a better understanding of the temporal and spatial distributions of similar taxa can lead to a clarification of identification criteria, just as understanding their ID can lead to a better understanding of distribution.
Cheers, Chris.
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Hi,
For comparison, here is Raja’s picture of a Tasmanian Morepork taken at Eaglehawk Neck a couple of years ago (unfortunately it doesn’t show the underparts): http://www.adarman.com/Pelagics/Tasmania-Pelagics/2011-September-03-04-Eagle/18917649_MHCfG2#!i=1467468730&k=73VTWsT&lb=1&s=A
Also, some time ago Murray Lord posted his pictures of museum specimens on Birding-Aus.
Cheers,
Nikolas
I have some shots of a leucopsis in a shed on King Island, that I’m happy to email to anyone interested. Other than Facebook, I don’t really have anywhere to publish them online.
My only photos of mainland birds (pretty poor quality, too) is of WA birds.
Cheers, John Tonngue Ulverstone, Tas.
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Fantastic to see such nice clear photos of what looks very much like a ‘leucopsis’ boobook in Victoria. Too jarring for me to call it a morepork! Nice work Steve and Jenny.
Deep in the mists of time when I was a lad I saw birds like this in winter in the wet forests around Mount Sabine and Mount Cowley up on the ridge behind Lorne, Otway Ranges, SW Victoria (late 1970s – mid 1980s). At the time I regarded them as ‘*leucopsis*’ from Tasmania (Conole 1985), but the photographic gear in that era wasn’t quite what it is now
… and that remained unconfirmed.
The Tasmanian boobook was described as *Athene leucopsis* by Gould (1838). Mees (1964) revived it as a subspecies of *N. novaeseelandiae* (which then also included *N. n. boobook*).
Mees also had this to say regarding its movements:
“… This subspecies is apparently a regular migrant to the mainland; not uncommon in Victoria, but rare in New South Wales. The only authentic specimen from New South Wales I have seen is a male collected in August 1903 in scrub at Long Reef, Manly, by S. W. Jackson. On its label further appear the notes: “this is the 3rd bird only of this species obtained in New S. Wales (rare bird in N.S.W.) ” (written by Bassett-Hull), and “May 1916. This skin was forwarded to Mr . A. F. Bassett-Hull in Sydney, who compared it with skins in the Australian Museum Collection and found it to be Ninox maculata” (written by White or Jackson). Ramsay (1890, 1898) listed several other specimens from New South Wales: Sydney, Petersham and off Gabo Island; I have not examined these skins which are presumably still in the Australian Museum collection. The dates of specimens collected in Victoria are from 18th April to 12th October, which is consistent with their being winter visitors only. A specimen caught at sea 50 miles off the Hunters, in May 1906, on which I have commented earlier (Mees, 1961, p. 105) forms a confirmation of the migratory habits of this race; this specimen had previously been mentioned by Littler (1910). On the other hand at least part (the major part?) of the population seems to stay in Tasmania, as I have examined specimens collected in mid-winter at Railton (June 21 and 28) and Dulverton near Railton (July 17) …”.
Mees wrote in 1966 “… The movements and winter range of leucopsis would be a rewarding subject to investigate …”. Indeed.
*Refs:*
Conole, L.E. (1985). The distribution and status of owls (Aves; Strigidae and Tytonidae) in the Geelong-Otway district, Victoria. *Geelong Naturalist * *22*: 3-17.
Gould, J. (1838). Van Diemen’s Land, *Proc . Zool . Soc. Lond .* 5, (1837), p. 99.
Mees, GF (1964). A revision of the Australian owls (Strigidae and Tytonidae). Zoologische Verhandelingen 65, 1-62.
++++++++++++ Lawrie Conole 54 High Street Kyneton 3444 Australia
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The size criterion is a hint that it is a ‘good’ species, as it breaks Bergman’s Rule (populations of a species in higher latitudes are larger). Ditto Tasmanian Magpie?
John Leonard
G’day Peter,
It’s the combination of three or four features all in the one bird that suggest Tasmanian Boobook, yellow eyes, small white spotting surrounding the face and elsewhere if you could see it eg hindneck, and as John has said white markings in the belly presenting more as overlaid white circles with less of a tendency towards longitudinal shapes. Steve Clarke also felt that the bird looked particularly small, ssp leucopsis is over 10% smaller than ssp boobook.
Cheers Jeff.
Hi Peter and all, Really just on the scalloped chest/belly pattern, which is very like birds I’ve seen here. To my recollection, most of the Vic birds I’ve seen seemed to be more streaked.
Cheers, John Tongue Ulverstone, Tas.
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Apparently this winter dispersal is unproven, so it would be good to prove whether this bird really is of that type, regardless of whether it’s split or not. What features tell you it looks like Tasmanian Boobooks, John?
Peter Shute
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Hi all, I don’t know enough about Boobook differentiation and movements. I must say, I am still mystified about how Tasmanian Morepork could be split from Aus Boobook, and then lumped with NZ and Norfolk Island Morepork??
However, Pizzey does talk of some winter dispersal of the Tasmanian race of Boobook to the mainland, so it’s possible that’s what you have. From the pic’s, it certainly looks like Tassie birds I’ve seen.
Cheers, John Tongue Ulverstone, Tas.
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