Southern Boobook Owl
I was brought up to think of owls as being creatures of the night. You can imagine my surprise, when walking the dogs along the firebreak on a property in the south west town of Northcliffe, to see a Southern Boobook Owl just hanging out in a tree at about 10am. It’s hard to say if he/she was staying up well past bed time or was up super duper early.
In either case, this owl was very settled and just sat in its tree to watch me watching it.
These owls are widespread across Australia. They don’t have the typical heart shaped, flat face that story book owls have either.
This one had the most beautiful chest feather. They look like a chocolate and cream hounds-tooth check to me.
More information
http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Ninox-novaeseelandiae