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DESCRIPTION

Adults: Sexes similar in appearance. Length 600 to 650mm, males larger. Underparts are grey-brown barred with white or pale brown. Barring is finer on crown and courser on wings and tail. Throat and underparts cream or pale buff barred with grey-brown chevron shaped markings. Eye is orange-yellow. Bill is bone-grey grading to black tip. Cere is bone-grey. Toes are creamy yellow with dark grey claws.

Juvenile: Similar to adults.

Voice: Territorial call by both sexes. A mournful, loud and slow woo-hoo on the same pitch or slightly rising, which can be heard at any time of the year, particularly at dawn and dusk. About 10 seconds between each hoot. The call is given through a closed bill. Males call is slower and at a lower pitch then females. Courting male and female are more vocal during breeding season and rumble and rasp. Males gives a pulsating poorp-poorp-poorp. Nestlings beg with a shrill trill.

The Powerful Owl is found predominantly in wet sclerophyll forests from Rockhampton in Queensland down through the east coast and the Great Dividing Range to the Dawson River area of south-eastern South Australia. It is a shy bird, often living in pairs. The owl occupies a large permanent territory between 800 and 1000 hectares. The owl rests by day in tall trees which provides expansive views of the territory. A pair has several roosting trees which are used on different days, not always together, but within calling distance of each other. At night the owl becomes active and preys on birds and small mammals such as the Greater Glider and Ringtail Possum. These are taken quickly from the foliage of trees as the bird sweeps through the forest. The Powerful Owl breeds from May to October and has one brood a year. The nest, prepared by the male, is high in the eucalypt canopy and is made out of wood and leaf debris. Two eggs are laid, about four nights apart. Incubation is 35 to 38 days by the female. The male provides food for the female, which he passes to her outside the nest, and she then feeds the chicks. Young fledge in eight to nine weeks but are dependent on the parents for some months afterwards.