Christmas boobook lores and throat, yellow eyes, legs and feet. It is approximately 26–29 cm in length and 130-190 grams in weight with the female slightly larger than the male. The double-noted hoot, "boo-book," has a clucking quality with the second note usually lower in pitch. The begging call of juveniles is a high-pitched trill. Vocalisations are similar to those described for the Southern Boobook "N. novaeseelandiae" and include individual variation in advertisement calls. This may be useful in estimating owl densities as radio-tracking can be impractical in some terrains. A recording, courtesy of Richard Hill and Owl Pages http://www.owlpages.com/sounds/Ninox-natalis-2.mp3 Its natural
Morepork have hollows. Although their main hunting technique is perch-and-pounce, they are agile birds with a swift, goshawk-like wing action and the ability to maneuver rapidly when pursuing prey or hawking for insects. They hunt a variety of animals – mainly large invertebrates including scarab and huhu beetles, moths and caterpillars, spiders, grasshoppers, and in New Zealand, wetas. They also take almost any suitably sized prey, particularly small birds, rats, and mice. They can find suitable food in pine forests as well as native forest. A widespread and generally common species, morepork is listed as being a species of least concern