Barred Boobook

Open encyclopedia reference

The New Ireland boobook or New Ireland hawk owl (Ninox variegata) also known as the Bismarck boobook, Bismarck hawk owl or barred boobook, is a small to medium-sized owl measuring 25 to 30 cm (9.8 to 11.8 in) in length. It is a dark rufous-brown above, with barred scapular feathers and variable amounts of spotting or barring on the wings and tail. Its underparts are whitish, with an unmarked pale throat, a dark barred upper breast and barring on the remainder of the underparts. Its face is dark brown, its eyes are brown or yellow, and its bill and legs are yellow. It is short-tailed and has heavy tarsi (the part of the leg above what is commonly referred to as the foot). Endemic to the Bismarck archipelago, it occurs on the islands of New Britain, New Ireland and New Hanover, where it lives in forested lowlands, hills and mountains, up to an altitude of 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It was first described as Noctua variegata by French naturalists Jean René Constant Quoy and Joseph Paul Gaimard in 1830.

Wikipedia contributors, New Ireland boobook; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T03:52:25.794830+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Ninox variegata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)

Name authority

(Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)

Common name

Barred Boobook

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Strigiformes

Family

Strigidae

Genus

Ninox

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderStrigiformes
10. familyStrigidae
11. subfamilyNinoxinae
12. genusNinox Hodgson, 1837
13. speciesNinox variegata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Ninox. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 196 records assigned to Strigidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=555490 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:47FKX. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.