This is the Golden Masked Owl, also called the New Britain Barn or Masked Owl. It is found only on the island of New Britain, east of Papua New Guinea. There are estimated to be 2500 to 10,000 of these owls.
They live in tree hollows in coniferous forests, where they hunt mostly ground dwelling mammals and insects. They are also prey themselves to larger eagles and hawks, so protected nesting and roosting areas are important.
I picked this owl today to lead into a post for tomorrow about “The Trail of the Golden Owl” that I just learned about. It’s a 30 year old mystery/treasure hunt that is still unsolved, involving a buried brass owl and a reward of a golden, gem encrusted owl as the reward. I’m going to do some more reading on it today, so hopefully this doesn’t turn out to be a dud, but it sounds fun!
Meanwhile, he’s some now real Golden Owls!
I hope I can find some good stuff on it.
My work is shut down, but I’m in doing maintenance and I have an hour while the machines refill, so I’ve been reading the What an Owl Knows book. It’s so good! I was going to see play it with a reader app, but I kept pausing it every paragraph to make notes. I’ve got so many bookmarks for topic ideas.
Today so far I read about tracking down owls with dogs, drones, and satellites, some of the risks involved in calling owls (for the owls’ safety), and catching the first ever Blakiston’s Fish Owl for live study.
I hope the treasure hunt story is even half as compelling!