A little Southern Boobook was wide awake when I walked beneath its tree this morning. This is the first time I’ve seen one of these owls, though I’ve heard them hoot during the night hours.

I sat down on the ground and watched the bird for a while. It wasn’t disturbed by my presence, and grew quite sleepy, as you can see in the next video. At the end of the video I zoomed out so that you can see a bit of the bush surrounding the bird:

Southern Boobooks are quite small, at around 30cm in length from head to tail. Compare that to the Powerful Owl, which is around 65cm.

Here’s a still photo of the bird, showing a deep yellow eye and fluffy white feathers above its beak:

Southern Boobooks are quite common. They feed mostly on insects and spiders, but they do take the occasional small bird or animal too. Here’s a closeup of the owl’s face:

Common name: Southern Boobook

Scientific name: Ninox novaeseelandiae

Approximate length: 30cm

Date spotted: 20 March 2019 (late summer)

Location: Manly Dam National Reserve, near Sydney: 33°46’30.0″S 151°15’09.2″E