Southern boobook pale spots. It has grey-green or yellow-green eyes. It is generally nocturnal, though is sometimes active at dawn and dusk, retiring to roost in secluded spots in the foliage of trees. The southern boobook feeds on insects and small vertebrates, hunting by pouncing on them from tree perches. Breeding takes place from late winter to early summer, using tree hollows as nesting sites. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the southern boobook as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population. English ornithologist John Latham described the boobook owl as "Strix
Ninox novaeseelandiae ocellata southern boobooks may directly correlate with rainfall, with the paler species being found in areas of lower rainfall, indicating the semi arid regions of Australia (the range of the ocellata sub species). The boobook has a very distinctive double hoot ‘boo-book’ with the second note being lower. This call has earned it the common name of ‘mopoke’. Subspecies ocellata tends to inhabit the warmer areas of Australia, from north-western New South Wales/western Queensland spanning across to Western Australia, although it is rarely found in the more arid regions. The boobook is found in a wide variety of habitats, from semi-arid