Australian High Country Owls

by Olsen, Jerry

• ISBN13: 9780643097056
• ISBN10: 0643097058
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-28
• Publisher: Csiro

Summary

Australian High Country Owlsprovides the latest scientific information on Australian owl species, especially Ninox owls. It details studies of Southern Boobooks and Powerful Owls, visits to North America and Europe to learn about owl research, and the resulting publications that overturned some existing beliefs about Australian owls. Ultimately, this led to the discovery of a new owl species in Indonesia, the Little Sumba Hawk-Owl. Appendices cover the biology, conservation and rehabilitation of Australian owls, including: field recognition, subspecies taxonomy, habitat, behavior, food, range, migration, breeding, voice and calls, status and myths, questions about each species, and techniques for caring for injured and orphaned owls. The book includes numerous photographs of different owl species, and will be a handy reference for bird researchers and amateur bird watchers alike. KEY FEATURES * Written in an easy-to-read style containing past and current findings on owl biology * Field Guide Appendix contains updated information on field recognition, subspecies taxonomy, habitat, behavior, food, range, migration, breeding, voice and calls, status and myths and questions about each species * Conservation and rehabilitation appendix covers the current status of each species and techniques for caring for injured and orphaned owls

Author Biography

Jerry Olsen has studied birds of prey for 40 years, in the United States, Canada and Australia, and has written more than 130 publications on birds of prey including four books. He is a member of the Institute for Applied Ecology at the University of Canberra. In 2002, Jerry, Susan Trost, Michael Wink and Heidi Sauer-Grth were the first to describe and name the Little Sumba Hawk-Owl Ninox sumbaensis.

Table of Contents

Preface and acknowledgements	p. ix
What is an owl?	p. 1
What is a Ninox?	p. 9
What is a Southern Boobook?	p. 15
Studying owls	p. 21
David Fleay	p. 23
Surveying owls	p. 29
Finding owls	p. 33
Trapping and handling owls	p. 39
Telemetry	p. 49
Diet and hunting - medium-sized owls	p. 53
Spotted Owls	p. 55
Boobook summer diet	p. 59
Boobook prey size	p. 65
Northern Hawk-Owls and Long-eared Owls	p. 71
Winter Boobook diet	p. 77
Great Horned Owls and versatility	p. 83
Great Grey Owls and wing formulae	p. 89
Powerful Owl diet	p. 95
Forest owl diets	p. 103
Powerful Owls and dimorphism	p. 109
Breeding	p. 117
Southern Boobook calls	p. 119
Borders	p. 129
Duetting and duelling	p. 135
Weather and calling	p. 139
A lover's triangle	p. 143
Pre-breeding behaviour	p. 147
Colour plates	p. 151
Nests and breeding habitat	p. 167
Timing of breeding	p. 173
Pair behaviour - incubation	p. 181
Pair behaviour - prey deliveries	p. 185
Fledging age	p. 193
Female desertion	p. 197
Fledgling behaviour	p. 201
Snowy Owls	p. 209
David Lack's theory of limiting factors	p. 213
Tawny Owls in Kielder Forest	p. 219
Duelling and nest failures	p. 223
Conservation	p. 231
Spotted Owls	p. 233
Athene and Burrowing Owls	p. 237
Little Owls	p. 241
Conserving Australian owls	p. 247
Conservation techniques	p. 253
Wallacea	p. 263
Wallacea	p. 265
Sumba Barn Owls	p. 269
Sumba Boobook	p. 275
New species	p. 281
Eviction	p. 289
Australian owls	p. 297
Rehabilitating injured and orphaned owls	p. 334
References	p. 349
Index	p. 359
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.