Sightings sought for southern barking owl as fears grow the WA native bird may already be extinct

Have you seen a southern barking owl?

It does not seem likely as researches worry the biggest owl in the South West may already be extinct.

Edith Cowan University senior vertebrate biology lecturer Robert Davis is calling for any verifiable sightings of the elusive owl, hoping the region’s birdwatchers might be able to aid in the search.

He said in the past 20 years, there had only been 10 verified sightings and no photographs or recordings of the owl have ever been produced, leading him to be concerned for the species.

“As a birdwatcher for a good 30 years, I suddenly realised myself and no one I knew had ever seen one in the South West,” Dr Davis said.

“A resulting study found out they are extremely scarce in the South West.”

Dr Davis said due to the owl’s rarity, there had never been any research on the status of the species, with the last specimen being a wing found in Boyup Brook in 1963.

It is one of two recognised subspecies along with northern barking owls, but he said it is likely these should be divided further to represent western and eastern populations.

“We would be doing genetic work, but we don’t have any modern genetic material,” Dr Davis said.

“Every other bird in recent decades that has a south-west and south-east distribution has been made full species splits.

“I think it’s an extremely likely situation that it’s possibly an endemic species found only here in the South West.”

If the species is endemic to the State, Dr Davis is worried it may already be extinct.

Yet he is hopeful there are some small pockets of owls still hanging on in the South West.

Their decline is a standout compared to other species that have a decent distribution across the South West, but Dr Davis said all owls were showing signs of decline due to habitat loss, competition for tree hollows and rat and mice baits killing many across their range.

“The only theory I’ve got is the owl is possibly our largest in the South West,” he said.

“I suspect they ate a lot of those medium sized mammal prey that would have been heavily impacted by foxes and cats themselves.”

Dr Davis said this additional pressure may be what was impacting the southern barking owl more than others.

Dr Davis said he has had many calls mistakenly identifying the much more common boobook owl as southern barking owls, but the latter species have much more vibrant yellow eyes, are much bigger and have an underlying white chest with dark streaks.

Anyone who has seen a barking owl is being asked to email Robert.Davis@ecu.edu.au or submit a record using eBird or Birdata.

Photos, videos, recordings of calls or detailed descriptions are required to distinguish reports from boobooks.

“It’s not that I don’t trust you, but at this stage I need some strong evidence,” Dr Davis said.