Our collective opinion up here is that lurida badly needs recognition as a good species and there are a number of good reasons for that. Hoping to get more data on this from here on. Ocellata is virtually silent at this time and I suspect that like many other dryland tropical species, breeding takes place once the Wet Season is under way – or even late in the wet season – February-April when there is a peak in food supply. It is very vocal during September and October. Like nearly all tropical rainforest species, lurida's breeding seems to take place in November and December. Young birds can look a bit scruffy.Īlso one very important thing which no one seems to have considered is that there appears to be a considerable gap between their breeding seasons which would make it harder for widespread hybridisation to take place. There seems to be some slight variation which is probably related to age/sex. I had John Young look at these and he said male and female lurida without hesitation. Some time ago, there was a couple of photos of so-called hybrids pop up (on Birding-aus?). In my 25 years in the Wet Tropics I have never seen ocellata in the wetter open forests closer to the upland areas (e.g. Mt Carbine) a fair way from the upland rainforest and then only in well scattered pairs. It seems to be restricted to the very dry open forest (e.g. Lurida is quite common on Mt Lewis whereas ocellata is quite rare in the surrounding open forest. I am fairly sure there are no hybrid specimens in collections. ![]() ![]() We have been working on lurida on and off for more than 20 years and have yet to see an obvious hybrid. Not sure about race boobook in the southern Wet Tropics but neither ocellata nor boobook are rainforest owls in this region. I think I can say emphatically that there is no hybridisation between ocellata and lurida.
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