Unusual call

["ben milbourne via Canberrabirds " <>]

---

From: ben milbourne <>
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2026 1:54:02 PM
To: Anthony Overs <>
Cc: COGChat <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Unusual call

 

Very interesting Elliott, thank you.

Yes, received a few responses.  Your email is a great confirmation.  

It's noteworthy that this Boobook call occurred at 9:30PM and a solitary powerful owl call was picked up four minutes later at 9:34PM.

Will add this into the ebird listing.

Ben

Get Outlook for Android

---

From: Anthony Overs <>
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2026 1:30:53 PM
To: ben milbourne <>
Cc: COGChat <>
Subject: Re: [Canberrabirds] Unusual call

 

Hi Ben.

Not sure whether anyone replied to you...

The call you've recorded is a 'yelp' call. 

The boobook has ten vocalisations:
Boobook, Single hoot, Por/Croak, Squeal, Bray, Trill, Yelp, Growl, Scream, and Squeak.

HANZAB describes the call:

Loud falsetto cat-like yelp yow, usually repeated, and uttered particularly during autumn or winter, and usually by females, though commonly by males on Mokoia I., NZ; uttered with open bill (Stidolph 1925; Buckingham & Jackson 1990; Stephenson 1998; Fleay; Hollands). Used when swooping at Powerful Owl (McNabb 1996) and when defending fledgelings against people (Olsen & Trost 1998). Said to be analogous to Scream of Barking Owl (Fleay).

Anthony

On Sat, 14 Mar 2026 at 20:34, ben milbourne via Canberrabirds <m("lists.canberrabirds.org.au","canberrabirds");">> wrote:

Good evening,

Whilst enjoying the cool Brindabella breeze with Mel Pearce, we were surprised by a call which neither of us had encountered before https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/652743963

After a little research, supported by Deb, it appears to be a Boobook call [cf https://xeno-canto.org/416600 Wollemi NP (2018)].

Curious whether anyone may be able to please confirm this observation.  And if it does prove indeed to be a Boobook, what this 'unusual' call may be communicating.

Cheers, Ben 

--
This is the email announcement and discussion list of the Canberra Ornithologists Group.
Emails posted to the list that exceed 2 MB (2,000 kB) in size, including attachments, will be rejected.
All emails distributed via the list are archived at http://bioacoustics.cse.unsw.edu.au/archives/html/canberrabirds. It is a condition of list membership that you agree to your contributions being archived.

Canberrabirds mailing list
m("lists.canberrabirds.org.au","Canberrabirds");">
https://lists.canberrabirds.org.au/mailman/listinfo/canberrabirds

This email and any files transmitted with it may contain confidential information. If you believe you have received this email or any of its contents in error, please notify me immediately by return email and destroy this email. Do not use, disseminate, forward, print or copy any contents of an email received in error.

ATT00001.txt
Description: ATT00001.txt