Powerful Owl preying on an Australian Brush-turkey in Sydney

Abstract

We report an observation of a Powerful Owl Ninox strenua preying on an almost fully-grown Australian Brush-turkey Alectura lathami in Pymble, a northern suburb of Sydney, NSW. This adds to the few observations of Powerful Owls preying on large birds, as this prey species weighed at least 103% of the Owl’s body weight. Australian Brush-turkeys have only recently moved into Sydney’s suburbs, and this observation shows that Powerful Owls can shift their choice of prey to the species present at a given location.