Laughing Owl

The Laughing Owl (Sceloglaux albifacies), Whekau or White-faced Owl, was an endemic owl found in New Zealand, but is now probably extinct. It was plentiful when European settlers arrived in New Zealand in 1840. Specimens were sent to the British Museum where reports on them were published in 1845.
By 1880, they were becoming rare, and the last recorded specimen was found dead at Blue Cliffs in Canterbury, New Zealand in 1914. There have been unconfirmed reports since then. In his book The Wandering Naturalist, Brian Parkinson describes reports of a Laughing Owl in the Pakahi near Opotiki in the 1940s. Laughing Owl egg fragments were apparently found in Canterbury in 1960.

Extinction was caused by persecution, land use changes and the introduction of predators such as cats and stoats.

Description

The Laughing Owl's plumage was yellowish-brown striped with dark brown. There were white straps on the scapulars, and occasionally the hind neck. Mantle feathers were edged with white. The wings and tail had light brown bars. The tarsus had yellowish to reddish-buff feathers.
The facial disc was white behind and below the eyes, fading to grey with brown stripes towards the centre. The eyes were dark orange. It's length was 35.5-40cm (14-15.7") and wing length 26.4cm (10.4").

Voice

The call of the Laughing Owl has been described as "a loud cry made up of a series of dismal shrieks frequently repeated". The Laughing Owl was given its name because of this sound.

Other descriptions of the call were: "A peculiar barking noise ... just like the barking of a young dog"; "Precisely the same as two men "cooeying" to each other from a distance"; "A melancholy hooting note".

Others describe the call as a high-pitched chattering, only heard when the birds were on the wing and generally on dark and drizzly nights or immediately preceding rain.

Various whistling, chuckling and mewing notes were observed from a captive bird.

Habitat and diet

The laughing Owl generally occupied rocky, low rainfall areas. It was also found in forest districts on the North Island. Their diet was catholic, taking a range of prey items, including beetles, lizards, small birds, and later on rats and mice. Laughing Owls were apparently ground feeders, chasing prey on foot. Knowledge on their diet, and how that diet changed over time, is preserved in fossil and sub-fossil deposits of their pellets. These pellets have been a boon to the paleobiological research of late New Zealand's Pleistocene and Holocene animal communities, creating concentrations of otherwise poorly preserved small bones. Its diet generally reflected the communities of small animals in the area, taking prions (small seabirds) where they lived near colonies, snipe, parakeets and even large earthworms. Once Pacific Rats were introduced to New Zealand and began to reduce the number of native prey items the Laughing Owl was able to switch eating them instead. They were still therefore relatively common when European settlers arrived, being large and aggressive they were able to deal with the introduced rats that had caused the extinction of so much of their prey, however the stoats introduced to control feral rabbits were too much for the species.

Breeding

Breeding began in September or October. The nests were lined with dried grass and were on bare ground, in rocky ledges, fissures or under boulders. Two white, roundish eggs were laid, measuring 44-51 x 38-43 mm (1.7-2" x 1.5-1.7"). Incubation took 25 days, with the male feeding the female on the nest.

Distribution

North Island: Specimens were collected from the forest districts of Mt Egmont (1856) and Wairarapa (1868). Sighted in Porirua and Te Karaka. According to Maori tradition, they also occurred in Urewera.
South Island: Low rainfall districts - Nelson, Canterbury and Otago. Also central mountains and possibly Fiordland. Specimens were collected from Stewart Island in 1880.

Subspecies

Sceloglaux albifacies albifacies - South Island and Stewart Island.
Sceloglaux albifacies rufifacies - North Island.

References

Worthy, Trevor H., & Holdaway, Richard N. (2002) The Lost World of the Moa, Indiana University Press:Bloomington, ISBN 0-253-34034-9

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