![]() Latham obtained his information from Johann Reinhold Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. Gmelin based his description on the "New Zeeland owl" from Queen Charlotte Sound that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume A General Synopsis of Birds. He placed it with the other owls in the genus Strix and coined the binomial name Strix novaeseelandiae. The morepork was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed the morepork as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population. The morepork feeds on insects and small vertebrates, hunting by pouncing on them from tree perches. It is generally nocturnal, though sometimes active at dawn and dusk, retiring to roost in secluded spots in the foliage of trees. It has dark brown plumage with prominent pale spots, and golden-yellow eyes. ![]() It was also considered the same species as the Tasmanian boobook of Tasmania until 2022. ![]() Three subspecies of the morepork are recognized, one of which is extinct and another that exists only as a hybrid population.ĭescribed by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, it was for many years considered to be the same species as the Australian boobook of mainland Australia until 1999. The bird has almost 20 alternative common names, including mopoke and boobook-many of these names are onomatopoeic, as they emulate the bird's distinctive two-pitched call. ![]() The morepork ( Ninox novaeseelandiae), also called the ruru, is a small brown owl found in New Zealand, Norfolk Island and formerly Lord Howe Island. ![]()
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