Morepork they conceded the two were easily distinguishable in appearance, so maintained the three as subspecies; the Tasmanian boobook only diverged by 2.7% from the other two, while the powerful and rufous owls diverged by 4.4% from each other. Leading from this, the southern boobook was split from the Tasmanian boobook and morepork in volume 5 of the "", however several authors, including Les Christidis and Walter Boles, contested that the data had been misinterpreted from the Norman study, which had not sampled any Australian mainland boobooks at all. They treated the three taxa (southern, Tasmanian boobooks, and moreporks) as a
Southern boobook mask. The Tasmanian boobook has been recorded from southern Victoria, with one record from New South Wales. It has darker and more reddish upperparts with brighter white dots, with more prominent white dots and a yellow-brown tinge to the underparts. It has pinkish grey feet and golden eyes. The southern boobook is found across Australia, although is scarce in more arid regions such as western New South Wales, southwestern and western Queensland, much of South Australia away from the coast and interior Western Australia and Northern Territory. In drier areas it is generally found along watercourses such as the Darling