The powerful owl is the largest owl living in the Goulburn Broken Catchment. Photo: Jacob Dedman.
The powerful owl (Ninox strenua) and the Australian boobook (Ninox boobook) are featured this month in the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority’s 2026 Year of the Raptor community awareness campaign.
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Goulburn Broken CMA project officer Janice Mentiplay-Smith said it could be surprising to learn owls are raptors — carnivorous birds of prey that hunt and feed on live prey including rabbits, rodents, fish, lizards and other birds.
“With their flat, feathery faces known as facial discs, large forward-facing eyes, upright stance and circles of feathers under their eyes, they don’t look much like a traditional raptor, such as a wedge-tailed eagle,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
“However, their sharp talons, curved beak and ability to ‘fly silent’ paired with their exceptional vision and hearing, put them firmly in the raptor category.”
Ms Mentiplay-Smith said owls have some very useful hunting skills.
The front cover image of this year’s 2025 Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority calendar is a stunning photo of an Australian boobook by Richard Gregson of Numurkah. The boobook is the smallest owl in the Goulburn Broken catchment.
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“Unlike other raptors, owls can turn their head up to 270 degrees to help them locate prey. They also have asymmetrical ears, so any noise made by potential prey reaches each ear at slightly different times which helps them to precisely pinpoint the location of the next meal.
“As well, their sound absorbing feathers reduce the noise of their flapping wings.”
Australia is home to 11 owl species.
Those that call the Goulburn Broken catchment home vary greatly in size between species: the smallest is the Australian boobook which weighs around 300 grams and measures around 30 centimetres.
The largest is the powerful owl which can have a wingspan up to 1.4 metres and weigh approximately 1.4 kilograms.
“As Australia’s largest owl, the powerful owl lives in large tracts of forest where it can access territory, nesting hollows and food,” Ms Mentiplay-Smith said.
“A menu favourite is the brushtail possum, which also relies on tree hollows, emphasising the importance of retaining large old trees which has this important habitat.
“Tree hollow loss is one of the challenges faced by the powerful owl.”
Powerful owls have a slow, double-note ‘whoo-hoo’ call that can be heard across one or more kilometres.
In comparison, Australia’s smallest owl, the Australian boobook, has a distinctive two-toned call that sounds like ‘mopoke’ or ‘morepork’; a word that is often used as its common name.
Like all owls, the Australian boobook has excellent night-time vision, however, possibly as an evolutionary trade off, it does not perceive colour very well. Its wingspan is between 60-80cm and it can weigh up to 300g.
The Australian boobook feeds on insects and small mammals, including microbats, which it catches mid-air.
Tuesday, August 4 is International Owl Awareness Day where you can celebrate and learn about owls from around the world.
Bush Heritage https://www.bushheritage.org.au/species/owls features interesting stories about owls of Australia and Birdlife Australia’s citizen science Powerful Owl Project https://birdlife.org.au/projects/powerful-owl-project provides interesting reading on how everyday people are assisting the survival of the powerful owl in the challenging urban environments of south-east Queensland and Greater Sydney.
Local birding group Murray Goulburn BirdLife meets monthly to conduct outings and enjoy the local environment.
The next outing is on Saturday, July 18 for a Mangalore and Seymour River walk. For more information, contact robertsdon680@gmail.com
