The males were sourced from the New Zealand subspecies rather than one of the Australian subspecies as it was discovered that it was more closely related to the Norfolk Island taxon. As part of a program to attempt to conserve at least some of the genes of the insular subspecies, two male moreporks of the nominate New Zealand subspecies, Ninox novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae, were introduced to the island as mates for the female. By 1986 the population had been reduced to a single female bird, named "Miamiti" after a matriarch of the Norfolk Island people. There was also competition for nest hollows with feral honey bees and introduced crimson rosellas. The population of the Norfolk boobook declined with the clearance and modification of its forest habitat, especially the felling of large trees with suitable hollows for nesting in. Feeding īoobooks feed on small vertebrates, especially birds and mammals, as well as invertebrates. Recorded clutch sizes from Norfolk Island range from one to three eggs, with two being usual. Most of the remaining forest lies within the small (4.65 km²) Mt Pitt section of the Norfolk Island National Park.īoobooks breed in tree hollows. The owl inhabits the island's subtropical rainforest, which was largely cleared in the 19th century following human settlement. However, it is slightly larger than the nominate subspecies from New Zealand female boobooks are larger than the males, with New Zealand females comparable in size to Norfolk Island males, a factor which gave rise to sexing difficulties with hybrid birds in the conservation management program. It is smaller, darker and more reddish in colouring than the Tasmanian boobook, with much spotting. The Norfolk boobook is very similar in appearance to the New Zealand and Tasmanian boobooks, being a small brown hawk owl with mottled plumage.
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