Southern boobook age. Brushtail possums ("Trichosurus" spp.) and introduced cats and rats raid the nests for nestlings and eggs, and raptors such as the brown goshawk ("Accipiter fasciatus"), grey goshawk ("Accipiter novaehollandiae"), Australian masked owl ("Tyto novaehollandiae"), and probably powerful owl ("Ninox strenua") seize young birds. Juvenile southern boobooks are at greater risk after bushfires and have perished after being tangled up in dodder ("Cassytha") or bidgee-widgee ("Acaena novae-zelandiae"). The southern boobook generally preys on mice, insects, particularly nocturnal beetles and moths, and birds the size of a house sparrow ("Passer domesticus"). A higher proportion of its diet is invertebrates compared with
Australasian robin Australasian robin The bird family Petroicidae includes roughly 45 species in about 15 genera. All are endemic to Australasia: New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand and numerous Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa. For want of an accurate common name, the family is often called the Australasian robins. Within the family the species are known not only as robins but as scrub-robins and flycatchers. They are, however, only distantly related to the Old World family Muscicapidae (to which other species with such names belong) and the monarch flycatchers (Monarchidae). Most species have a compact build with a large, rounded head,