Baby barking owl with his new best friend: Harry Kunz of Eagles Nest

A baby bunyip joins Eagles Nest

A baby Barking Owl (Ninox connivens) is the latest baby to join the Eagles Nest crèche. These owls are believed to be the sound behind the legend of the fearsome Australian bunyip that haunts lonely waterholes and billabongs and prefers to attack women during the magic times of dawn and dusk.

Barking owls love nesting near water as they enjoy a regular early morning bathe, and as well as their characteristic dog-like double bark they are also known sometimes to howl like a woman screaming in pain which is terrifying and could certainly give rise to stories of mayhem down by the creek.

You can usually hear these owls at dawn and dusk when they are most active, often in a yapping chorus that sounds like a pack of dogs. If you go too near their nest, both the male and female owl will warn you off by snarling, again sounding remarkably like dogs.

Fledgling Barking Owls leave the nest while they are still very downy but will roost near and remain with their parents for several months before finding their own territory. This tiny Barking Owl was rescued from a dog near Lake Eacham and given to Harry to raise, as no-one could find his parents. 

The little owl was not hurt, but was very frightened and grieved for the loss of its safe home. For two days it refused to eat and had to be force fed, but now that it knows and trusts the carers at Eagles Nest the owlet is doing very well and loudly yells for its food as soon as it sees a human. Karin Traub, one of Eagles Nest carers, reports that “if you are not fast enough with this baby’s food, he will test your fingers to see if they are tasty.  He is becoming a very cheeky, very strong little bird and we have great hopes that we will be able to raise and rehabilitate this owl back to the wild.”

When this baby grows up, he will become a medium sized Brown Owl with white spots on his wings, a streaked breast and brilliant yellow eyes. The Barking Owl is also known as the Winking Owl, because of its tendency to close one eye so it looks like the bird has a sense of humour and is deliberately winking at you. There is little difference between the sexes in this owl’s world; both males and females grow to weigh between 425-510g with a wingspan of 85-100cm.

Although their distribution was widespread through mainland Australia, parts of Papua New Guinea and the Moluccas, Barking Owls are now less common. They prefer forests with large trees close to water and our human suburban sprawl now restricts their nesting sites just as our domestic pets threaten their young. Although Barking owls are not listed as threatened on the Australian Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, they are listed as an endangered species in Victoria and as vulnerable in New South Wales.

If you would like to help raise the babies at Eagles Nest like our little bunyip, we always need animal carers and people who are willing to commit to a regular cycle of feeding and cleaning enclosures.  At the moment we also desperately need volunteers with office skills, especially web and internet experience to help us keep our hospital records on track and our reports up to date. If you can help, please give Harry Kunz a call on 07 4097 6098 or email us at nestforeagles@yahoo.com.au. We’d love to hear from you.

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