Australian masked owl
species of bird
The Australian masked owl (Tyto novaehollandiae), also the Australasian masked owl or simply the masked owl, especially in Australia, is a barn owl of Southern New Guinea and the non-desert areas of Australia.
Taxonomy
Described subspecies of Tyto novaehollandiae include:
T. n. calabyi I.J. Mason, 1983, (southern New Guinea)
T. n. castanops (Gould, 1837), Tasmanian masked owl (Tasmania and introduced to Lord Howe Island)
T. n. galei Mathews, 1914, (Cape York Peninsula)
T. n. kimberli (Mathews, 1912), Northern masked owl (northern mainland Australia)
T. n. melvillensis Mathews, 1912, (Tiwi Islands)
T. n. novaehollandiae (Stephens, 1826), (southern mainland Australia)
T. n. troughtoni N.W. Cayley, 1931, cave-nesting masked owl (Nullarbor Plain, validity doubtful)
Description
Brown feathers surround a white, heart-shaped mask. Their dorsal plumage is brown, aside from light gray spots on the upper back.
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This entry incorporates text from “Australian masked owl” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.