Boobook owls

["Philip Veerman" <>]

Rob,

 

I believe the general answers to these questions is yes as a feature of most (all?) of the Ninox genus for a pair to call together like that. I don't know if that is the only context of that calling pattern. For example I don't know (others like Jerry Olsen might know) if an established pair calling together or opposite sex members of 2 rival pairs at a territory border would sound any different to us.

 

Philip.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Rob Geraghty [
Sent: Tuesday, 3 December 2013 1:51 PM
To: Canberrabirds
Subject: [canberrabirds] Boobook owls

I was kept awake between about midnight and 2am on sunday night (well, Monday morning) by two different Boobook owls playing duelling banjoes (OK duelling hoots) outside. One bird made a continuous croaking noise for a while as the other continued its normal call. There seemed to be a distinct different in pitch between the two birds, which made me curious whether they were a mated pair. Do both the male and female Boobooks call (and indeed call together), and is there any difference in the pitch of their calls? The two birds weren't in the same tree but were at least a hundred metres apart.

 

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Rob Geraghty