Ninox novaeseelandiae ocellata Ninox novaeseelandiae ocellata Ninox novaeseelandiae ocellata is a subspecies of southern boobook. The southern boobook is the most common and smallest owl on the Australian mainland. The sub species is characterised by its lighter colour than other sub species, and is generally found in a wide range of habitats (adapting very well to human activities). Ocellata is the smallest of the boobook subspecies as it is found in the warmer western parts of Australia (north-western New South Wales/western Queensland across to Western Australia). although it is not found in arid areas. The Boobook can be commonly known as the ‘mopoke’
Southern boobook treated Australian and New Zealand boobooks, along with several taxa from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as one species—"Ninox novaeseelandiae"—with 16 subspecies. In his 1968 book "Nightwatchmen of the Bush and Plain", Australian naturalist David Fleay observed that the boobooks from Tasmania more closely resembled those of New Zealand than those from mainland Australia, though he followed Mees in treating them as a single species. The southern boobook was split from the Tasmanian boobook and morepork in volume 5 of the "" in 1999, though several authors, including Australian ornithologists Les Christidis and Walter Boles, continued to treat the three