Morepork

The morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae), also known by its Māori name ruru, is a smallish brown owl found in New Zealand, the Australian islands of Norfolk Island, and formerly on Lord Howe Island. Its names (also including boobook and mopoke) are onomatopoeic, owing to the species’ distinctive calls. Three subspecies of the morepork are recognised, one of which is extinct and another that exists only as a hybrid population.

First described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, the morepork was thought to be the same species as the Australian boobook (N. boobook), native to Australia, Timor-Leste and New Guinea, something that endured for more than two hundred years, until 1999. Similarly, it was also considered the same as the Tasmanian boobook (N. leucopsis) until 2022 .