Mystery Owl

13 posts / 0 new
Last post
stephen26
Mystery Owl

Hi I was just wondering if anyone knew what kind of owl this is? (Sorry the photos arn't very clear)

I saw it on the side of the road near my house and when we got home we could hear it making loud noises that sounded sort of like a scream or deep monkey sound. It looked like it was a white and light grey/brown colour. I live in south east melbourne near the Dandenongs

Thanks :)

pacman
pacman's picture

sorry I can't help from the pics

Peter

dna1972
dna1972's picture

From the photos (sadly) I cannot tell much. From your description of the calls and the colours, I would guess Tawny Frogmouth. Why? Because they do have a kind of scream and their common contact call is possible to be thought of as a deep monkey kind of a call. It is a depp oooohm oooohm oooohm oooohm oooohm kind of sound and the frequency of the ooohms is about two ooohms per second.

If it is a Tawny Frogmouth, then it is not an owl, but a species of nightjar.

stephen26

Thanks for that :)

hawkeye.69
hawkeye.69's picture

That is an owl. Definately not a frogmouth. Hard to tell with your pics, but the size and shape are proportianate to owl species.

---
---'s picture

It's probably an Owlet-nightjar.

dna1972
dna1972's picture

I am really not convinced of any species so if you could please e-mail me a full frame (DO NOT CROP IMAGE) jpeg up to 10 megabytes or so to akos at amatteroflight.com thanks

ihewman
ihewman's picture

See the dark neck collar that is typical of Tawny FM? And judging by the size proportions of the bird and the fence, those fences typically being 1m or so high, you can see that the bird is a decent size and seems right for a frogmouth. The back of the legs are pointing towards you so, the bird has its back to us and its head turned to the side. But it seems that the position the bird is sitting in and the direction of the fence doesn't make sense. Anyway, if the head is turned to the side, you can assume it's a frogmouth because the eye is clearly visible on the side of the head. I'm convinced it is a Tawny Frogmouth.

Brandon (aka ihewman)

dna1972
dna1972's picture

remembering that the average Australian thinks a frogmouth is an owl. no

---
---'s picture

ihewman wrote:

See the dark neck collar that is typical of Tawny FM? And judging by the size proportions of the bird and the fence, those fences typically being 1m or so high, you can see that the bird is a decent size and seems right for a frogmouth. The back of the legs are pointing towards you so, the bird has its back to us and its head turned to the side. But it seems that the position the bird is sitting in and the direction of the fence doesn't make sense. Anyway, if the head is turned to the side, you can assume it's a frogmouth because the eye is clearly visible on the side of the head. I'm convinced it is a Tawny Frogmouth.

But what apart the line that appears to go from the eye to the neck? Is that on the bird or from noise/quality?

soakes
soakes's picture

Could it be a barking owl?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barking_Owl

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

stephen26

Sorry these are the only photos I have. They were just taken on a mobile so that's why they're not very clear

soakes
soakes's picture

Maybe you could check out the sound that a barking owl makes and try to remember if your owl was making that sound?

- soakes

soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia

 and   @birdsinbackyards
                 Subscribe to me on YouTube