Australia’s largest owl, the Powerful Owl is found in the Wombat Forest. They are winter breeders and use large hollows in old eucalypt species for breeding.
Wombat Forestcare members have carried out extensive searches and established the locations of nesting sites for five pairs. Searches are carried out in gullies with Blackwoods and large old trees with hollows.
Powerful Owls defecate a white chalky wash that is very distinctive as well as regurgitating pellets of indigestible fur and bone from their consumed prey, and these can be found under regular roost trees.
A Wombat Forestcare volunteer now deploys song meters to assist with the location of the owls. These are left for a number of days in probable habitat in the hope of recording their distinctive ‘whoo whoo’.
It is also helpful to be able to record owl chicks trilling for food from a nest hollow and confirm that breeding has taken place.
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Juvenile Powerful Owl roosting in a Blackwood
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Powerful Owl roosting in a Blackwood
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Powerful Owl roosting in a Blackwood
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Two young Powerful Owls with the female adult owl
