Norfolk boobook Norfolk boobook The Norfolk boobook ("Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata"), also known as the Norfolk Island boobook, Norfolk Island owl or Norfolk Island morepork, was a bird in the true owl family endemic to Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand. It is an extinct subspecies of the morepork ("Ninox novaeseelandiae"). However, although the taxon is extinct, its genes live on in the descendants of the hybrid offspring of the last female bird, which was sighted for the last time in 1996. The Norfolk boobook was very similar in appearance to other subspecies of the
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