Powerful Owl Brisbane Update
Submitted by kataburrow on 28 Feb 2020.
We at the Powerful Owl project in southeast Queensland are looking forward to the 2020 season!
Just last week, a female Powerful Owl was perched above a large possum condo I had installed a few years earlier. She called for about ½ hour, and we think she has bred in previous years about 500m away. She often visits our yard at this time of year, but she is a bit earlier this year. The visit has left me keen to get started again this season!
Workshops will be running throughout the region from 29 February to 19 April. These workshops introduce people to owl identification, biology & ecology, while also allowing people to sign up formally to participate as a citizen scientist, get permits and be taught tricks to help us monitor these large but elusive owls. If you would like to join us please register here.
2019 was a great year, with 31 breeding areas now identified, and over 150 pairs suspected in the region. These results simply would not have been possible without the dedication of over 400 volunteers. We have also secured funding from the Queensland Government to continue the project until October 2022. We are partnering with researchers at QUT to trial acoustic monitoring to help us find Powerful Owls in more remote areas and are optimistic at how this new technology will be able to help us improve our understanding of Powerful Owl distributions. If you would like to learn more about the project our 2019 report is available here.
Unfortunately, this summer’s bushfires were especially hard on Australia’s forest owls, with approximately 1/3 of their habitat impacted by fire. With such a poor understanding of forest owl distribution or ecology, the knowledge we can gain in this project has become increasingly important. We hope you can join or support the project in 2020.
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To keep tabs on the project you can:
Check the website
Join the facebook group
Or email us at powerfulowl-bris@birdlife.org.au
If you see or hear an owl, please report it directly on BirdData.
Photo: Dave Robson
