Southern boobook north of Perth. There, southern boobook owls are dying after eating rodents that people have killed with second-generation anticoagulant rat poison. Older poisons such as warfarin or coumatetralyl were unlikely to affect owls. Southern boobook The southern boobook ("Ninox boobook") is a species of owl native to mainland Australia, southern New Guinea, the island of Timor, and the Sunda Islands. Described by John Latham in 1801, it was generally considered to be the same species as the morepork of New Zealand until 1999. Its name is derived from its two-tone "boo-book" call. Eleven subspecies of the southern boobook are recognized,
Southern boobook the nest with food. A purring or braying call is used by both sexes as a contact call around the nest and (more quietly) when bringing food to nestlings, or by the female to beg for food from the male. The female makes a low trill during courtship and nesting. Growls, high-pitched yelps, and screeches can be made when attacking intruders. The southern boobook maintains and defends a territory in breeding season; whether this continues for the rest of the year is unclear. It retires to densely foliated spots in trees in the daytime, each individual often having several roosting