Australian Field Ornithology 2019, 36, 05–10 http://dx.doi.org/10.20938/afo36005010 Predation of a Grey Goshawk Accipiter novaehollandiae with a Powerful Owl Ninox strenua as the likely predator Vincent Mourik1* and Allan O. Richards2 1300 Beauchamp Road, Matraville NSW 2036, Australia 234/13 Stewart Street, Glebe NSW 2037, Australia *Corresponding author:
[email protected] Abstract. Strong circumstantial evidence is presented for a case of predation of a Grey Goshawk Accipiter novaehollandiae by a Powerful Owl Ninox strenua along Cattai Creek in the Mitchell Park section of Cattai National Park in the Greater Sydney region, New South Wales, in October 2017. Evidence includes the feathery remains of a Grey Goshawk originating from a plucking post on the forest floor, located within an active Powerful Owl roosting site indicated by Powerful Owl feathers, pellets and whitewash. Although the Powerful Owl is known to prey on large birds, our observations constitute the first evidence of predation of a Grey Goshawk by a Powerful Owl. Introduction On 15 October 2017, among the spiderwort on the forest floor, we detected pluckings over an area of ~50 cm diameter The Powerful Owl Ninox strenua predominantly feeds that contained many diagnostic feathers (Figure 1). on arboreal mammals and, to a lesser extent, birds (e.g. No larger remains such as claws, wingtips or breastbone Higgins 1999; Debus 2009; Fitzsimons & Rose 2010; were present. The spiderwort had already formed new Olsen et al. 2011; Bilney 2013a,b). Birds included in its shoots, ~10 cm long, growing through the layer of feathers, diet are typically mid- to large-sized birds (50–1000 g), with suggesting that these remains had been present on the known prey including several cockatoo and corvid species forest floor for at least 1 week.