Morepork Morepork The morepork ("Ninox novaeseelandiae"), also called the ruru or Tasmanian spotted owl, is a small brown owl found throughout New Zealand and Tasmania. Described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it was for many years considered to be the same species as the southern boobook of mainland Australia until 1999. Its name is derived from its two-tone call. Four subspecies of the morepork are recognized, one of which is extinct and another that exists only as a hybrid population. The bird has almost 20 alternative common names, including mopoke and boobook — many of these names are onomatopoeic, as
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