Bismarck Boobook
Ninox variegata
A rather small owl with a grayish-brown head, brown upperparts spotted with white, and whitish underparts barred with rufous. Common in most forests up to at least 1000 meters of elevation. Differs from the similar New Britain Boobook in barred rather than spotted underparts, lack of contrastingly dark chest, and lack of slim white eyebrows. Ranges unlikely to regularly overlap. Voice is a gruff, frog-like “kra-kra-kra-kra.”
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Ninox variegata
- Authority
- (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)
- Order
- Strigiformes
- Family
- Strigidae
- Genus
- Ninox
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
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Copsychus stricklandii
Black with an orange belly and bright white crown; also note white rump and undertail. Endemic to northern Borneo, where it inhabits lowland and foothill forests, including swamps and around streams. Typically forages on or close to the ground. Loud, vibrant song is beautiful and variable, consisting of a range of whistles, warbles, and harsher notes.
Dark-fronted Babbler
Dumetia atriceps
Plain but distinctive small stumpy babbler. Note the dark mask (extending to the crown in the Western Ghats), pale yellow eyes, and white underparts. Gives mechanical-sounding rattling ticks. Forages in flocks in the dense understory of forests, forest edge, and densely vegetated weedy fields, reedbeds, and cultivation, from lowlands up into montane areas.
Rapa Shearwater
Puffinus myrtae
A small black-and-white shearwater with a relatively long rounded tail and an extensively white face. Similar to Bannerman’s and Newell’s Shearwaters, but smaller, with white on the face extending above the eye. Quite similar to Bryan’s Shearwater, but has a proportionally longer tail and, most importantly, a white undertail, not a black one.
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