mdahlem.net WWW

Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14	15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y

13

Eastern Grass Owl (Tyto longimembris) Alternate name(s): "(Australasian) Grass Owl" Size: 32-38 cm (male), 35-42 cm (female); wing span 1.0-1.15 m Weight: 265-390 g (male), 310-480 g (female)

Australia: Family Group 13 Family Group 13 Table Oriental Cuckoo Pallid Cuckoo Brush Cuckoo Black-eared Cuckoo Chestnut-breasted Cuckoo Fan-tailed Cuckoo Horsefield's Bronze-Cuckoo Shining Bronze-Cuckoo Little Bronze-Cuckoo Australian Koel Channel-billed Cuckoo Pheasant Coucal Rufous Owl Powerful Owl Barking Owl Australian Boobook Eastern Barn Owl Eastern Grass Owl Australian Masked Owl Greater Sooty Owl Lesser Sooty Owl Marbled Frogmouth Tawny Frogmouth Papuan Frogmouth White-throated Nightjar Spotted Nightjar Large-tailed Nightjar Australian Owlet-nightjar Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Thumbnails page Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Eastern Grass Owls are small to medium-sized owls. Their plumage is dimorphic, i.e. males and females are different. Female Eastern Grass Owls have a conspicuous, heart-shaped pale facial mask with white and brown outer lining. The front is rufous-brown, the back rufous and dark-brown with some white specks. Male Eastern Grass Owls are paler overall, with a creamy facial mask, a creamy front with sparse small dark specks and a rufous and mid-brown back with white specks. Both sexes have small black eyes, a light-grey bill and legs that are half-way covered with feathers, while the lower half and the legs are pinkish-grey. Twitcher's tip They are distinguished from Eastern Barn Owls by their much darker colours, both front and back. In-flight the most conspicuous distinguishing criterion is the length of the legs, which in Eastern Grass Owls trail well behind the tip of the tail.

Taxonomy, classification See Eastern Grass Owl at Wikipedia . Click here for classification information Previously, Eastern Grass Owls were considered to be race "longimembris" of the "Grass Owl" (Tyto capensis), which is now called "African Grass Owl".

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Eastern Grass Owl is available HERE . The range of the Eastern Grass Owl extends from the southern slopes of the Himalayas to eastern China southwards, throughout south-eastern Asia (prominently in Taiwan and the Philippines, but also in Myanmar, Vietnam and Cambodia) to New Guinea and Australia. There are three separate breeding populations of Eastern Grass Owls in Australia. One resides in the Top End of the NT, another is found along the East coast of QLD, from the tropic of Capricorn to almost the tip of Cape York peninsula. The third, and most widespread, population resides in the Paroo catchment, the Channel country and in the Lake Eyre Basin, including most of western QLD, the north-western tip of NSW, the north-eastern corner of SA and the south-eastern part of the NT. During occasional widespread dispersals Eastern Grass Owls can be found almost anywhere on the Australian continent, with the exception of the far south-eastern corner, i.e. the Great Dividing Range and associated coastal areas of NSW (South of the Clarence River) and VIC (East of Melbourne). Eastern Grass Owls have a strong preference for tall grass (including swampy areas and heath), reeds or crops (especially canefields).

Sightings Click here for sighting information A pair of Eastern Grass Owls was observed on a broadacre farm (private property, no public access) 5 km South-East of Bellata, NSW, in October 2013, when the birds that had settled into wheat crop were disturbed by the combine harvester (both birds escaped without injury). A credible report has reached us of an independent sighting of a single Eastern Grass Owl, ca. 10 km from the location of our sighting, in October 2013. Shortly later, in early November 2013, at the end of the harvest of winter crops, only the female Eastern Grass Owl was seen at the location where a pair had been found earlier. A publication containing a more complete account of our sightings is now available here (1.3 MB PDF). In October/November 2015 a single male Eastern Grass Owl was again spotted on and around the same farm, 5 km South-East of Bellata, NSW. This time, the bird was not only flushed from its daytime roost, but also seen hunting above the stubble of the harvested field later the same night. Two weeks later, a female Eastern Grass Owl was flushed from a creek gully at the same farm. The farmer is certain that Eastern Grass Owls have been living on his fields in previous years too. At almost the same time two more Eastern Grass Owls were flushed during harvest on a farm about 10 km East of Edgeroi, NSW, some 10 km from the location of the sightings mentioned above. And two more Eastern Grass Owls were spotted near Ashley, 20 km North of Moree, also in November 2015. Farmers (and others) who think they may have spotted Eastern Grass Owls are encouraged to contact us with information.

Photos

Not the photos you want? Or are you after even better quality? Have a look here .

ADULT

MALE

Male Eastern Grass Owl sitting in wheat stubble, looking at the photographer
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

Lateral view of a male Eastern Grass Owl sitting in wheat stubble
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

Near-dorsal view of a male Eastern Grass Owl sitting in wheat stubble
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

Male Eastern Grass Owl settling into wheat stubble after flying out of a wheat field where it had been disturbed
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

FEMALE

Lateral view of a female Eastern Grass Owl in flight; note the very long, dangling legs
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2013]

Lateral view of a female(?) Eastern Grass Owl in low flight above a wheat field
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

Near-dorsal view of a female Eastern Grass Owl in flight
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2013]

Near-dorsal view of a female Eastern Grass Owl in flight, different phase of the wing beat
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2013]

Dorsal view of a female Eastern Grass Owl in flight
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2015]

Eastern Grass Owl escaping the approaching combine harvester
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

This rather distant, back-illuminated view of an Eastern Grass Owl provides the "jizz" of the bird: blunt head, powerful wings, short tail and long, dangling legs extending well beyond the tip of the tail
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Territorial?

Mobility: Dispersive/irruptive

Elementary unit: Solitary/pair

(Eastern) Grass Owls have particularly long legs, an adaptation enabling them to walk on the ground in tall grass. Astonishingly, they roost and breed on the ground too. When disturbed, they will fly only a short distance before dipping down into dense growth again.

View onto the upperwings of an Eastern Grass Owl in low flight, ready to vanish in the wheat or just the remaining stubble
[Near Bellata, NSW, October 2013]

Female Eastern Grass Owl ducking for cover in sorghum
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2015]

Here an impression of what was left at the end of harvest for an Eastern Grass Owl to hide in - yet one cannot see the bird that has just landed there at all
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2013]

After the end of harvest of the winter crop, this was the only remaining suitable habitat left for Eastern Grass Owls: a mixture of grass, reed and weed growth in shallow, usually dry, creek beds or gullies
[Near Bellata, NSW, November 2013]

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Fri, 7 August 2020, 2:44 +00:00