Powerful Owls are magnificent birds. When you come across them in the bush, your first impression is of their size. They are huge. Next, you notice how cute and fluffy they seem. And how watchful.

The two birds with white fluffy chest feathers are juveniles. Adults have dark chevron markings on their fronts, as you can see in the bird on the lowest branch in this shot. I think the lowest bird is the father, as he is significantly bigger than the other adult.

This video shows an amusing scene of the two juveniles spotting something at the same time, and moving their heads in sync:

Powerful Owls are listed as uncommon in my bird book. They’re also sedentary, which means they don’t migrate or move to different areas at different times of the year.

All four owls were awake and watchful, even though this was their sleeping time. They watched me for a while, from their roost high in the treetops.

Eventually they decided I was harmless, probably since I didn’t seem to be able to fly.

The biggest bird is at bottom left of this shot, and I think this bird is the male of the family. In this next video, he decided to move (nudged by a call of nature, it turns out) which gives you a good view of his feet:

In the next video, the two adults are doing a bit of grooming. The raucous calls of a Sulphur-crested Cockatoo startle the juveniles, but the adults are obviously used to their noisy neighbours:

The next shot shows how high up they were, and how large in relation to the big gum trees that form their habitat:

Here’s another shot showing the two babies and the smaller of the adults (the mother, I think):

Common name: Powerful Owl

Scientific name: Ninox strenua

Approximate length: 65 cm

Date spotted: 22 September 2018 (Spring)

Location: Manly Dam Reserve, New South Wales, Australia