Ninox novaeseelandiae

Morepork Ninox novaeseelandiae, copyright Jake Osborne.

Belongs within: Strigidae.

Ninox novaeseelandiae, the morepork, is a small owl found between eastern Indonesia and New Zealand, named for its two-toned call. Overall coloration is dark brown more or less spotted and barred white and/or rufous; the eyes are surrounded by a dark mask with pale rims.

<==Ninox novaeseelandiae (Gmelin 1788) (see below for synonymy) CC10
    |--N. n. novaeseelandiae (see below for synonymy) CC10
    |--N. n. albaria Ramsay 1888 HR96, CC10 [=N. boobook albaria CC10]
    |--N. n. arida Mayr 1943 WS48
    |--N. n. cinnamomina Hartert 1906 CC10
    |--N. n. fusca (Vieillot 1817) CC10
    |--N. n. halmaturina Mathews 1912 CC10
    |--N. n. leucopsis (Gould 1838) CC10
    |--N. n. lurida De Vis 1887 CC10 [=N. boobook var. lurida DV87]
    |--N. n. marmorata (Gould 1846) [=Athene marmorata] WS48
    |--N. n. mixta Mathews 1912 [=N. boobook mixta] WS48
    |--N. n. moae Mayr 1914 CC10
    |--N. n. ocellata (Bonaparte 1850) CC10
    |--N. n. plesseni Stressemann 1929 CC10
    |--N. n. pusilla Mayr & Rand 1935 CC10
    |--N. n. remigialis Stresemann 1930 CC10
    |--N. n. rotiensis Johnstone & Darnell 1997 CC10
    `--N. n. undulata (Latham 1802) (see below for synonymy) CC10

Ninox novaeseelandiae (Gmelin 1788) [=Strix novaeseelandiae, Athene novaeseelandiae, A. novazealandiae, Ieraglaux novaezealandiae, Ninox novaezealandiae, Spiloglaux novaeseelandiae, S. novaezealandiae] CC10

Ninox novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae (Gmelin 1788) [incl. Strix fulva Latham 1790, Strix novaeseelandiae maculata Kerr 1792, Noctua venatica Peale 1848, Spiloglaux novaeseelandiae venatica, Noctua zelandica Quoy & Gaimard in Dumont d’Urville 1830] CC10

Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata (Latham 1802) [=Strix undulata, N. boobook undulata; incl. N. boobook royana Mathews 1912, Spiloglaux novaeseelandiae royana] CC10

*Type species of generic name indicated

REFERENCES

[CC10] Checklist Committee (OSNZ). 2010. Checklist of the Birds of New Zealand, Norfolk and Macquarie Islands, and the Ross Dependency, Antarctica 4^th ed. Ornithological Society of New Zealand and Te Papa Press: Wellington.

[DV87] De Vis, C. W. 1887. On new or rare vertebrates from the Herbert River, north Queensland. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, series 2, 1 (4): 1129–1137.

[HR96] Heather, B. D., & H. A. Robertson. 1996. The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Viking: Auckland.

[WS48] Whittell, H. M., & D. L. Serventy. 1948. A systematic list of the birds of Western Australia. Public Library, Museum and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Special Publication 1: 1–126.