Norfolk boobook morepork, being a small brown hawk owl with mottled plumage. It was smaller, darker and more reddish in colouring than the Australian subspecies, with much spotting. However, it was slightly larger than the nominate subspecies from New Zealand; female boobooks are larger than the males, with New Zealand females comparable in size to Norfolk Island males, a factor which gave rise to sexing difficulties with hybrid birds in the conservation management program. The owl inhabited the island's subtropical rainforest, which was largely cleared in the 19th century following human settlement. Most of the remaining forest lies within the small (4.65
Norfolk boobook km²) Mt Pitt section of the Norfolk Island National Park. Boobooks breed in tree hollows. Recorded clutch sizes from Norfolk Island range from one to three eggs, with two being usual. Boobooks feed on small vertebrates, especially birds and mammals, as well as invertebrates. The population of the Norfolk boobook declined with the clearance and modification of its forest habitat, especially the felling of large trees with suitable hollows for nesting in. There was also competition for nest hollows with feral honey bees and introduced crimson rosellas. By 1986 the population had been reduced to a single female bird, named