86-471: 2 extant, 1 extinct (see text) The morepork ( Ninox novaeseelandiae ), better known as the morepork owl , and also known by numerous other onomatopoeic names (such as boobook , mopoke or ruru ), is a smallish, brown owl species found in New Zealand , and to the northwest, on Norfolk Island , an Australian territory. It was also, formerly, found on Lord Howe Island . Three subspecies of
172-509: A "snap, crackle, pop" when one pours on milk. During the 1930s, the illustrator Vernon Grant developed Snap, Crackle and Pop as gnome-like mascots for the Kellogg Company . Sounds appear in road safety advertisements: "clunk click, every trip" (click the seatbelt on after clunking the car door closed; UK campaign) or "click, clack, front and back" (click, clack of connecting the seat belts ; AU campaign) or "make it click" (click of
258-646: A bird—the holotype —in the Sydney district in the 1790s. John Gould described Athene marmorata in 1846 from a specimen in South Australia. This is regarded as a synonym . German naturalist Johann Jakob Kaup classified the two taxa into subgenus Spiloglaux of a new genus Ieraglaux in 1852, renaming S. boobook to Ieraglaux (Spiloglaux) bubuk . In his 1865 Handbook to the Birds of Australia , Gould recognised three species, all of which he placed in
344-649: A concept mimetically and performatively rather than referentially, but different from onomatopoeia in that they aren't just imitative of sounds. For example, shiinto represents something being silent, just as how an anglophone might say "clatter, crash, bang!" to represent something being noisy. That "representative" or "performative" aspect is the similarity to onomatopoeia. Sometimes Japanese onomatopoeia produces reduplicated words. As in Japanese, onomatopoeia in Hebrew sometimes produces reduplicated verbs: There
430-475: A fence, branch, or telegraph pole as a perch or vantage point from which to hunt, the Australian boobook pounces on prey then retreats to a tree or elevated place to eat it. It often hunts in open areas near trees, and also where prey is likely to congregate, such as mice near haystacks or barns, or flying insects near street- or house-lights. A widespread and generally common species, the Australian boobook
516-740: A further 2–4 months before dispersing, losing the remainder of their downy feathers by around 5 months of age. Brushtail possums ( Trichosurus spp.) and introduced cats and rats raid the nests for nestlings and eggs, and raptors such as the brown goshawk ( Accipiter fasciatus ), grey goshawk ( Accipiter novaehollandiae ), Australian masked owl ( Tyto novaehollandiae ), and probably powerful owl ( Ninox strenua ) seize young birds. Juvenile Australian boobooks are at greater risk after bushfires and have perished after being tangled up in dodder ( Cassytha ) or bidgee-widgee ( Acaena novae-zelandiae ). The Australian boobook generally preys on mice, insects, particularly nocturnal beetles and moths, and birds
602-512: A grey fringe at the end, while the undertail is a lighter grey-brown. The female tends to be more prominently streaked than the male overall, though this is inconsistent and wide variation is seen. The eyes have been described as grey-green, green-yellow, or even light hazel. The bill is black with a pale blue-grey base and cere . The feet are greyish to pinkish brown with dark grey to blackish claws. The underparts are pale, ranging from buff to cream, and are streaked with brown. The overall colour
688-430: A harsher version of the call when mobbing intruders. Both sexes, though mainly the female, give a single monosyllabic hoot as an alarm call or warning. Australian boobooks also make a repetitive croaking or grunting call while courting, mating, or greeting, or as a response to other boobooks hooting. Birds may switch from croaks to hoots seamlessly. Males generally croak at the beginning of the evening, and when arriving at
774-490: A new word, up to the point that the process is no longer recognized as onomatopoeia. One example is the English word bleat for sheep noise: in medieval times it was pronounced approximately as blairt (but without an R-component), or blet with the vowel drawled, which more closely resembles a sheep noise than the modern pronunciation. An example of the opposite case is cuckoo , which, due to continuous familiarity with
860-436: A paler facial disk, with a white supercilium (eyebrow) and dark brown ear coverts and cheeks. The brown feathers of the upper forehead, above the supercilium, and sides of the neck have yellow-brown highlights. The feathers of the lores , chin and throat are white with black shafts. The feathers of the underparts are mostly brown with white spots and dark blue-grey bases. The upper tail is dark brown with lighter brown bars and
946-727: A particular sound is heard similarly by people of different cultures, it is often expressed through the use of different phonetic strings in different languages. For example, the " snip "of a pair of scissors is cri-cri in Italian , riqui-riqui in Spanish , terre-terre or treque-treque in Portuguese , krits-krits in modern Greek , cëk-cëk in Albanian , and kaṭr-kaṭr in Hindi . Similarly,
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#17327973605751032-449: A round or angular shape, has been tested to see how languages symbolize sounds. The Japanese language has a large inventory of ideophone words that are symbolic sounds. These are used in contexts ranging from day-to-day conversation to serious news. These words fall into four categories: The two former correspond directly to the concept of onomatopoeia, while the two latter are similar to onomatopoeia in that they are intended to represent
1118-466: A sound in a word, or a phoneme , is related to a sound in an environment, and are restricted in part by a language's own phonetic inventory, hence why many languages can have distinct onomatopoeia for the same natural sound. Depending on a language's connection to a sound's meaning, that language's onomatopoeia inventory can differ proportionally. For example, a language like English generally holds little symbolic representation when it comes to sounds, which
1204-670: A villain named Onomatopoeia , an athlete, martial artist, and weapons expert, who is known to verbally speak sounds ( i.e. , to voice onomatopoeic words such as "crash" and "snap" out loud to accompany the applicable event). Advertising uses onomatopoeia for mnemonic purposes, so that consumers will remember their products, as in Alka-Seltzer 's "Plop, plop, fizz, fizz. Oh, what a relief it is!" jingle, recorded in two different versions (big band and rock) by Sammy Davis Jr. Rice Krispies (known as Rice Bubbles in Australia) make
1290-530: A year old) have whitish underparts and foreneck, a larger and more prominent pale eyebrow and larger whitish spots on their upperparts. The tips of their feathers are white and fluffy, remnants of the nestlings' down. These are worn away over time, persisting longest on the head. The feathers of the head, neck and underparts are fluffier overall. Immatures in their second and third year have plumage more like adults, though their crowns are paler and more heavily streaked. On mainland Australia, it could be confused with
1376-420: A yellow-brown tinge to the underparts. It has pinkish grey feet and golden eyes. The Australian boobook is found across mainland Australia, although it is scarce in more arid regions such as western New South Wales, southwestern and western Queensland, much of South Australia away from the coast and interior Western Australia and Northern Territory. In drier areas, it is generally found along watercourses such as
1462-722: Is a documented correlation within the Malay language of onomatopoeia that begin with the sound bu- and the implication of something that is rounded, as well as with the sound of -lok within a word conveying curvature in such words like lok , kelok and telok ('locomotive', 'cove', and 'curve' respectively). The Qur'an, written in Arabic, documents instances of onomatopoeia. Of about 77,701 words, there are nine words that are onomatopoeic: three are animal sounds (e.g., mooing ), two are sounds of nature (e.g., thunder ), and four that are human sounds (e.g., whisper or groan ). There
1548-576: Is a species of owl native to mainland Australia, southern New Guinea, the island of Timor , and the Sunda Islands . Described by John Latham in 1801, it was generally considered to be the same species as the morepork of New Zealand until 1999. Its name is derived from its two-tone boo-book call. Eight subspecies of the Australian boobook are recognized, with three further subspecies being reclassified as separate species in 2019 due to their distinctive calls and genetics. The smallest owl on
1634-463: Is an English word from the Ancient Greek compound ὀνοματοποιία, onomatopoiía , meaning 'name-making', composed of ὄνομα, ónoma , meaning "name"; and ποιέω, poiéō , meaning "making". It is pronounced / ˌ ɒ n ə m æ t ə ˈ p iː ə , - m ɑː t -/ . Words that imitate sounds can thus be said to be onomatopoeic , onomatopoetic , imitiative , or echoic . In
1720-409: Is dark brown with lighter brown bars. The cere and bill is pale blue-grey with a black cutting edge. The feet are orange or yellow with blackish claws. Young moreporks do not attain adult plumage properly until their third or fourth year. The tips of juvenile's feathers are white and fluffy, remnants of the nestlings' down. These are worn away over time, persisting longest on the head. The feathers of
1806-426: Is defined simply as the imitation of some kind of non-vocal sound using the vocal sounds of a language, like the hum of a bee being imitated with a "buzz" sound. In another sense, it is described as the phenomena of making a new word entirely. Onomatopoeia works in the sense of symbolizing an idea in a phonological context, not necessarily constituting a direct meaningful word in the process. The symbolic properties of
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#17327973605751892-424: Is found in farmland and suburban areas as long as some scattered trees are present. The Australian boobook is a mainly nocturnal species, though it may be active at dawn and dusk. It is heard much more commonly than seen, being particularly vocal in the breeding season. The characteristic two-note boo-book call or hoot can be heard up to 1 km (0.6 mi) away, the second note generally lower in pitch than
1978-613: Is listed as being a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature , on account of its large range and stable population, with no evidence of any significant decline. Like most species of owl, the morepork is protected under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meaning the international import and export of
2064-426: Is listed as being a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature , on account of its huge range and stable population, with no evidence of any significant decline. Like most species of owl, the Australian boobook is protected under Appendix II of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meaning the international import and export of
2150-1166: Is mobbed by passerines if discovered. It may allow people to approach to within 1 to 3 m (3.5 to 10 ft). The maximum age recorded from banding has been 15 years 11 months, in a bird caught and later caught again on Black Mountain in the Australian Capital Territory. Across Australia, breeding takes place from July to February, though peaks in October, and is generally earlier in more northern areas. Eggs are laid from August to October in Queensland, from September to November in New South Wales and southern Western Australia, July to September in central and northern Western Australia, in October and November in Victoria, and in September to December in South Australia. The Australian boobook nests in holes in trees between 1 and 20 m (3–70 ft) above
2236-570: Is named for the sound it makes: the zip (in the UK) or zipper (in the U.S.) Many birds are named after their calls, such as the bobwhite quail , the weero , the morepork , the killdeer , chickadees and jays , the cuckoo , the chiffchaff , the whooping crane , the whip-poor-will , and the kookaburra . In Tamil and Malayalam , the word for crow is kākā . This practice is especially common in certain languages such as Māori , and so in names of animals borrowed from these languages. Although
2322-614: Is perch-and-pounce, they are agile birds with a swift, goshawk-like wing action and the ability to maneuver rapidly when pursuing prey or hawking for insects. They hunt a variety of animals – mainly large invertebrates including scarab and huhu beetles , moths and caterpillars, spiders, grasshoppers , and in New Zealand, wētā . They also take almost any suitably sized prey , particularly small birds, rats, and mice. They can find suitable food in pine forests as well as native forest. A widespread and generally common species, morepork
2408-544: Is the phrase "furrow followed free" in Samuel Taylor Coleridge 's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner . The words "followed" and "free" are not onomatopoeic in themselves, but in conjunction with "furrow" they reproduce the sound of ripples following in the wake of a speeding ship. Similarly, alliteration has been used in the line "as the surf surged up the sun swept shore ..." to recreate
2494-410: Is the reason English tends to have a smaller representation of sound mimicry than a language like Japanese, which overall has a much higher amount of symbolism related to the sounds of the language. In ancient Greek philosophy, onomatopoeia was used as evidence for how natural a language was: it was theorized that language itself was derived from natural sounds in the world around us. Symbolism in sounds
2580-416: Is used to reflect an object's state of disarray or separation, and shiiin is the onomatopoetic form of absolute silence (used at the time an English speaker might expect to hear the sound of crickets chirping or a pin dropping in a silent room, or someone coughing). In Albanian, tartarec is used to describe someone who is hasty. It is used in English as well with terms like bling , which describes
2666-680: Is variable and does not appear to correspond to subspecies or region. In northern and central Australia, Mayr found that the colour of the plumage appears to correlate with the rainfall or humidity, paler birds being found in three disjunct areas, each around 1,600 km (990 mi) away from the other two: the western Kimberley and Pilbara , Sedan on the Cloncurry River , and around Ooldea , with darker birds found on Cape York and Melville Island. Young Australian boobooks are usually paler than adults and do not attain adult plumage properly until their third or fourth year. Juveniles (up to
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2752-844: Is wide array of objects and animals in the Albanian language that have been named after the sound they produce. Such onomatopoeic words are shkrepse (matches), named after the distinct sound of friction and ignition of the match head; take-tuke (ashtray) mimicking the sound it makes when placed on a table; shi (rain) resembling the continuous sound of pouring rain; kukumjaçkë ( Little owl ) after its "cuckoo" hoot; furçë (brush) for its rustling sound; shapka (slippers and flip-flops); pordhë (loud flatulence) and fëndë (silent flatulence). In Hindi and Urdu , onomatopoeic words like bak-bak, cūr-cūr are used to indicate silly talk. Other examples of onomatopoeic words being used to represent actions are phaṭāphaṭ (to do something fast), dhak-dhak (to represent fear with
2838-491: The Cape York Peninsula and Broome are around 200 g (7.1 oz). Females tend to be a little larger and heavier than males, with males weighing 146–360 g (5.1–12.7 oz) and females 170–298 g (6.0–10.5 oz). The Australian boobook has generally dark brown head and upperparts, with white markings on the scapulars and spots on the wings. Its head lacks tufts common in other owls and has
2924-687: The Darling and Paroo Rivers , and Lake Eyre Basin . It is found on numerous offshore islands such as Groote Eylandt, Melville Island, Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and many islands off eastern Australia. It is found in southern New Guinea, Timor and surrounding islands in Indonesia. It is found in a wide range of habitats, from forest and open woodland to scrubland and semidesert areas. In Australia, it resides in mainly eucalypt forests. It has adapted to landscapes altered by human activity and
3010-782: The " honk " of a car's horn is ba-ba ( Han : 叭叭 ) in Mandarin , tut-tut in French , pu-pu in Japanese , bbang-bbang in Korean , bært-bært in Norwegian , fom-fom in Portuguese and bim-bim in Vietnamese . An onomatopoeic effect can also be produced in a phrase or word string with the help of alliteration and consonance alone, without using any onomatopoeic words. The most famous example
3096-552: The "New Zeeland owl" from Queen Charlotte Sound that had been described in 1781 by the English ornithologist John Latham in his multi-volume A General Synopsis of Birds . Latham obtained his information from Johann Reinhold Forster who had accompanied James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific Ocean. The morepork is now one of 37 owls placed in the genus Ninox that was introduced in 1837 by English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson . "Morepork" has been designated
3182-420: The Australian boobook as being of least concern on account of its large range and apparently stable population. English ornithologist John Latham described the boobook owl as Strix boobook in 1801, writing about it in English, before giving it its scientific name, taking its species epithet from a local Dharug word for the bird. The species description was based on a painting by Thomas Watling of
3268-524: The Australian mainland, the Australian boobook is 27 to 36 cm (10.5 to 14 in) long. The nominate subspecies is the largest. It has short, rounded wings and a short tail, with a compact silhouette in flight. Australian boobooks on the Australian mainland follow Bergmann's rule , in that birds from cooler and more southerly parts of the range tend to be larger. Thus, birds from the Canberra region weigh around 300 g (11 oz) while those from
3354-603: The Australian mainland, the Australian boobook is 27 to 36 cm (10.5 to 14 in) long, with predominantly dark-brown plumage with prominent pale spots. It has grey-green or yellow-green eyes. It is generally nocturnal, though sometimes it is active at dawn and dusk, retiring to roost in secluded spots in the foliage of trees. The Australian boobook feeds on insects and small vertebrates, hunting by pouncing on them from tree perches. Breeding takes place from late winter to early summer, using tree hollows as nesting sites. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed
3440-530: The Australian populations of the Australian boobook, leading Gwee and colleagues to suggest it be reclassified within this species. Gwee and colleagues found that boobook populations on larger, mountainous islands were more distinct from Australian stock, while those on flatter smaller islands were much more similar. This was taken as suggesting that these locations were colonised much more recently, after previous populations had become extinct. Seven subspecies of Ninox boobook are recognised in version 12.1 of
3526-708: The Bush and Plain , Australian naturalist David Fleay observed that the boobooks from Tasmania more closely resembled those of New Zealand than those from mainland Australia, though he followed Mees in treating them as a single species. The Australian boobook was split from the Tasmanian boobook and morepork in volume 5 of the Handbook of the Birds of the World in 1999, though several authors, including Australian ornithologists Les Christidis and Walter Boles, continued to treat
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3612-633: The IOC World Bird List, published in January 2022: Three former subspecies of Ninox boobook have been classified as distinct species since 2017: namely, Rote boobook ( Ninox rotiensis ), Timor boobook ( N. fusca ), and Alor boobook ( N. plesseni ). The subspecies N. b. remigialis was transferred to the barking owl by the International Ornithological Congress in 2022. The smallest owl on
3698-488: The Norfolk boobook was similar in plumage to the Tasmanian boobook, it was genetically much closer to the New Zealand subspecies. In fact, the two were so close genetically that they considered whether the Norfolk boobook should be recognised as a separate taxon at all, although they conceded the two were easily distinguishable in appearance, so maintained the three as subspecies; the Tasmanian boobook only diverged by 2.7% from
3784-408: The Tasmanian boobook and morepork as distinct species. The morepork is 26 to 29 cm (10 to 11.5 in) long, with the female slightly larger than the male. Females are slightly heavier at 170–216 g (6.0–7.6 oz) compared with the male's 140–156 g (4.9–5.5 oz). The morepork has generally dark brown head and upperparts, with pale brown spots on head and neck and white markings on
3870-423: The barking owl or the brown boobook ( Ninox scutulata ), a rare vagrant to the northwest, although the Australian boobook is easily distinguished by its squat posture and distinctive pale border to its face mask. The Tasmanian boobook has been recorded from southern Victoria, with one record from New South Wales. It has darker and more reddish upperparts with brighter white dots, with more prominent white dots and
3956-470: The bird noise down the centuries, has kept approximately the same pronunciation as in Anglo-Saxon times and its vowels have not changed as they have in the word furrow . Verba dicendi ('words of saying') are a method of integrating onomatopoeic words and ideophones into grammar. Sometimes, things are named from the sounds they make. In English, for example, there is the universal fastener which
4042-441: The boobooks from Tasmania more closely resembled those of New Zealand than those from mainland Australia, though he followed Mees in treating them as a single species. Janette Norman and colleagues tested the cytochrome b DNA of three subspecies (as well as the powerful and rufous owls) to ascertain whether the closest relative was used in breeding with the last surviving female of the Norfolk boobook. They discovered that although
4128-399: The breeding season; whether this continues for the rest of the year is unclear. It retires to densely foliated spots in trees in the daytime, each individual often having several roosting sites. Caves or ledges are alternative roosting sites if no suitable trees are available. Although unobtrusive, it may give itself away by droppings or pellets on the ground beneath. The Australian boobook
4214-512: The broader linguistic system. Hence, the sound of a clock may be expressed variously across languages: as tick tock in English , tic tac in Spanish and Italian (in both languages "tac" is pronounced like the English "tock"), see photo, dī dā in Mandarin , kachi kachi in Japanese , or ṭik-ṭik in Hindi , Urdu and Bengali . The word onomatopoeia , with rarer spelling variants like onomatopeia and onomatopœia ,
4300-685: The case of a frog croaking, the spelling may vary because different frog species around the world make different sounds: Ancient Greek brekekekex koax koax (only in Aristophanes ' comic play The Frogs ) probably for marsh frogs ; English ribbit for species of frog found in North America; English verb croak for the common frog . Some other very common English-language examples are hiccup , zoom , bang , beep , moo , and splash . Machines and their sounds are also often described with onomatopoeia: honk or beep-beep for
4386-449: The day, moreporks sleep in roosts. Although mainly nocturnal , they are sometimes active at dawn and dusk . The main hunting times are evenings and mornings, with brief bursts of activity through the night. On dark nights, they often perch through the middle hours, and particularly if the weather is bad, may hunt by daylight, instead. Moreporks nest anywhere the trees are large enough to have hollows. Although their main hunting technique
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#17327973605754472-481: The first week, then only in the day until the third week. Her partner brings food to the nest, which she tears into pieces before feeding the nestlings. The young regurgitate pellets and defecate in the nest, which becomes quite smelly. They leave the nest 5–6 weeks after hatching, by which time they are fully feathered, with downy head and underparts and short tails. The tail reaches its adult length by 65 to 70 days. Young boobooks then live in their parents' territory for
4558-438: The first. Calling takes place from sunset through dawn, generally with a peak in the two hours after dusk and just before dawn. It can continue for several hours. The male's hooting is higher pitched and of shorter duration, and is heard much more commonly than that of the female. He uses it as a contact call and to advertise his territory to females, as well as when bringing food to his mate or even before mating. Birds give
4644-501: The genus Spiloglaux : S. marmoratus from South Australia, S. boobook , which is widespread across the Australian mainland and Tasmania, and S. maculatus from southeastern Australia and Tasmania. Meanwhile, in India, English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson had established the genus Ninox in 1837, and his countryman Edward Blyth placed the Australian boobook in the new genus in 1849. Australian boobook has been designated
4730-526: The glinting of light on things like gold, chrome or precious stones. In Japanese, kirakira is used for glittery things. A key component of language is its arbitrariness and what a word can represent, as a word is a sound created by humans with attached meaning to said sound. It is not possible to determine the meaning of a word purely by how it sounds. However, in onomatopoeic words, these sounds are much less arbitrary; they are connected in their imitation of other objects or sounds in nature. Vocal sounds in
4816-473: The ground. The holes are generally vertical, and mostly in eucalypts, though other trees such as coast banksia ( Banksia integrifolia ) have been recorded. Some sites are reused by the species for up to 20 years, especially if broods have been successfully raised in them before. Boobooks may also evict other birds such as galahs ( Eolophus roseicapillus ) to use their hollows, and have used sites abandoned by babblers , crows, and ravens. The male does more of
4902-478: The head, neck, and underparts are fluffier overall. Their plumage is a darker and more greyish brown overall than that of adults. In New Zealand's North Island, it is common from Rangaunu Harbour south to southern Taranaki and west of Tauranga , Lake Taupō , and Whanganui , as well as between Murupara and the Hangaroa River in the northeast, and southern Manawatū , Wellington , and Wairarapa in
4988-690: The horn of an automobile, and vroom or brum for the engine. In speaking of a mishap involving an audible arcing of electricity, the word zap is often used (and its use has been extended to describe non-auditory effects of interference). Human sounds sometimes provide instances of onomatopoeia, as when mwah is used to represent a kiss. For animal sounds, words like quack (duck), moo (cow), bark or woof (dog), roar (lion), meow / miaow or purr (cat), cluck (chicken) and baa (sheep) are typically used in English (both as nouns and as verbs). Some languages flexibly integrate onomatopoeic words into their structure. This may evolve into
5074-426: The imitation of natural sounds does not necessarily gain meaning, but can gain symbolic meaning. An example of this sound symbolism in the English language is the use of words starting with sn- . Some of these words symbolize concepts related to the nose ( sneeze , snot , snore ). This does not mean that all words with that sound relate to the nose, but at some level we recognize a sort of symbolism associated with
5160-411: The more wild-speech features to which they are exposed, compared to more tame and familiar speech features. But the results of such tests are inconclusive. In the context of language acquisition, sound symbolism has been shown to play an important role. The association of foreign words to subjects and how they relate to general objects, such as the association of the words takete and baluma with either
5246-465: The morepork are recognised, one of which is extinct and another that exists only as a hybrid population. First described by Johann Friedrich Gmelin in 1788, the morepork was thought to be the same species as the Australian boobook ( N. boobook ), native to Australia, Timor-Leste and New Guinea , something that endured for nearly two hundred years, until 1999. Similarly, it was also considered
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#17327973605755332-437: The morepork has supreme night vision and excellent hearing, able to locate a tiny lizard or rodent from many metres above and away. They then stealthily approach their targeted prey with near-silent flight, without flapping their wings, the prey often not even aware they are being pursued. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the morepork's population and its potential for decline, and ranked
5418-755: The native name as buck-buck during the earliest days of the colony, reporting that early settlers had called it cuckoo owl as its call was reminiscent of the common cuckoo . He added, "The settlers in New South Wales are led away by the idea that everything is the reverse in that country to what it is in England; and the Cuckoo , as they call this bird, singing by night, is one of the instances they point out." Gould recorded local aboriginal names: Goor-goor-da (Western Australia), Mel-in-de-ye (Port Essington), and Koor-koo (South Australia). Alternative common names include spotted owl and brown owl. The Ngarluma people of
5504-404: The nest with food. A purring or braying call is used by both sexes as a contact call around the nest and (more quietly) when bringing food to nestlings, or by the female to beg for food from the male. The female makes a low trill during courtship and nesting. Growls, high-pitched yelps, and screeches can be made when attacking intruders. The Australian boobook maintains and defends a territory in
5590-573: The official name by the International Ornithological Committee , changed from "southern boobook" in 2019 with the separation of some Indonesian subspecies. The common name comes from the two-tone call of the bird, and has also been transcribed as "mopoke". William Dawes recorded the name bōkbōk "an owl" in 1790 or 1791, in his transcription of the Dharug language, and English explorer George Caley had recorded
5676-423: The official name by the International Ornithological Committee . Three subspecies are recognised: Both Gerlof Fokko Mees and Ernst Mayr regarded the taxonomy of the boobook owl as extremely challenging, the latter remarking in 1943 that it was "one of the most difficult problems I have ever encountered". In his 1968 book Nightwatchmen of the Bush and Plain , Australian naturalist David Fleay observed that
5762-507: The other two, while the powerful and rufous owls diverged by 4.4% from each other. Leading from this, the Australian boobook was split from the Tasmanian boobook and morepork in volume 5 of the Handbook of the Birds of the World ; however, several authors, including Les Christidis and Walter Boles, contested that the data had been misinterpreted from the Norman study, which had not sampled any Australian mainland boobooks at all. They treated
5848-494: The phonetic range of the language(s) most heavily spoken in their environment, which may be called "tame" onomatopoeia, and the full range of sounds that the vocal tract can produce, or "wild" onomatopoeia. As one begins to acquire one's first language, the proportion of "wild" onomatopoeia reduces in favor of sounds which are congruent with those of the language they are acquiring. During the native language acquisition period, it has been documented that infants may react strongly to
5934-815: The predominant prey species, especially the house mouse ( Mus musculus ), and also black rat ( Rattus rattus ), bush rat ( R. fuscipes ), and Gould's wattled bat ( Chalinolobus gouldii ). Birds including common starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ), house sparrow, red-browed finch ( Neochmia temporalis ), common myna ( Acridotheres tristis ), red-rumped parrot ( Psephotus haematonotus ), and white-browed babbler ( Pomatostomus superciliosus ), and invertebrates including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, cockroaches, moths, wolf spiders , and huntsman spiders were also consumed. A study in Victoria found that larger animals were eaten, including Baillon's crake ( Porzana pusilla ), common ringtail possum ( Pseudocheirus peregrinus ) and feral rabbit ( Oryctolagus cuniculus ). Using
6020-400: The rest of the upperparts, with a pale yellow-white supercilium (eyebrow), dark brown ear coverts , and buff cheeks. The eyes are yellow to golden-yellow. The feathers of the chin and throat are buff with dark brown shafts. The feathers of the underparts are mostly dark brown with buff and white spots and streaks, with the larger markings on the belly making it look paler overall. The upper tail
6106-528: The same as the Tasmanian boobook ( N. leucopsis ) until 2022. The morepork has dark-brown plumage with prominent pale spots and golden-yellow eyes. Like most strigiformes, the species is generally nocturnal , though may be crepuscular at times (or active at dawn and dusk), retiring to roost in secluded spots within the branches of trees. The morepork feeds on larger insects and small vertebrates, hunting by pouncing on them from tree perches. As with all owls,
6192-548: The seatbelt; McDonalds campaign) or "click it or ticket" (click of the connecting seat belt, with the implied penalty of a traffic ticket for not using a seat belt; US DOT (Department of Transportation) campaign). The sound of the container opening and closing gives Tic Tac its name. In many of the world's languages, onomatopoeic-like words are used to describe phenomena beyond the purely auditive. Japanese often uses such words to describe feelings or figurative expressions about objects or concepts. For instance, Japanese barabara
6278-509: The sister taxon to the barking owl ( N. connivens ). A 2017 study by Singapore-based biologist Chyi Yin Gwee and colleagues analysing both multi-locus DNA and boobook calls confirmed a sister relationship of N. n. novaeseelandiae and N. ( n. ) leucopsis and their close relationship to N. connivens . Genetic and call analysis show the Christmas boobook ( N. natalis ) to be very close to
6364-469: The site preparation, such as lining the base of the hollow with leaves. Two or three oval, white eggs, laid two to three days apart, are most commonly laid in a clutch, though one to five may be seen. They average 41.6 mm long by 35.5 mm wide and are finely pitted. The female alone incubates the eggs, during which time she is fed by the male. She does leave the nest at dusk for around half an hour, sometimes to bathe. Incubation takes 30–31 days, with
6450-408: The size of a house sparrow ( Passer domesticus ). A higher proportion of its diet is invertebrates compared with other Australian owls. Fieldwork in the vicinity of Canberra found that vertebrates made up more of the diet in autumn and particularly in winter. Although more invertebrates were eaten than vertebrates (even more so in autumn), they made up only 2.8% of the biomass consumed. Mammals were
6536-470: The sound itself. Onomatopoeia, while a facet of language, is also in a sense outside of the confines of language. In linguistics, onomatopoeia is described as the connection, or symbolism, of a sound that is interpreted and reproduced within the context of a language, usually out of mimicry of a sound. It is a figure of speech, in a sense. Considered a vague term on its own, there are a few varying defining factors in classifying onomatopoeia. In one manner, it
6622-511: The sound of breaking waves in the poem "I, She and the Sea". Comic strips and comic books make extensive use of onomatopoeia, often being visually integrated into the images, so that the drawing style emphasizes the sound. Popular culture historian Tim DeForest noted the impact of writer-artist Roy Crane (1901–1977), the creator of Captain Easy and Buz Sawyer : In 2002, DC Comics introduced
6708-444: The sound of fast beating heart), ṭip-ṭip (to signify a leaky tap) etc. Movement of animals or objects is also sometimes represented with onomatopoeic words like bhin-bhin (for a housefly) and sar-sarāhat (the sound of a cloth being dragged on or off a piece of furniture). khusr-phusr refers to whispering. bhaunk means bark. Australian boobook 11, see text The Australian boobook ( Ninox boobook ),
6794-815: The south, and uncommon outside these areas. In the South Island, it is more common west of the Southern Alps , around Marlborough and in Southland . It is common on Stewart Island and offshore islands. In New Zealand, it primarily inhabits forests dominated by Podocarpus , Nothofagus , Metrosideros , and other hardwoods, up to the alpine tree line. On Norfolk Island, it lives in forests of Norfolk Island pine ( Araucaria heterophylla ). They are usually seen singly, in pairs, or in small family groups of an adult pair and up to three young. Swamp harriers could feasibly prey on young moreporks. During
6880-432: The species (including parts and derivatives) is regulated. Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia (or rarely echoism ) is a type of word, or the process of creating a word, that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Common onomatopoeias in English include animal noises such as oink , meow , roar , and chirp . Onomatopoeia can differ by language: it conforms to some extent to
6966-509: The species as being of least concern (not currently at-risk), owing to its presently large range and apparently stable population. The morepork was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus 's Systema Naturae . He placed it with the other owls in the genus Strix and coined the binomial name Strix novaeseelandiae . Gmelin based his description on
7052-400: The three taxa (Australian plus Tasmanian boobooks and moreporks) as a single species. Examining both morphological and genetic ( cytochrome b ) characters in 2008, German biologist Michael Wink and colleagues concluded that the Australian boobook is distinct from the morepork and Tasmanian boobook (which they proposed to be raised to species status as Ninox leucopsis ), and that it is instead
7138-405: The three taxa (southern, Tasmanian boobooks, and moreporks) as a single species. Examining both morphological and genetic (cytochrome b ) characters, Michael Wink and colleagues concluded that the Australian boobook was distinct from the morepork, as was the Tasmanian boobook , which is raised to species status as Ninox leucopsis . In 2022, the International Ornithological Congress reclassified
7224-796: The western Pilbara knew it as gurrgumarlu . In the Yuwaaliyaay dialect of the Gamilaraay language of southeastern Australia, the Australian boobook is guurrguurr . Dutch naturalist Gerlof Mees and German evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr regarded the taxonomy of the boobook owl complex as extremely challenging, the latter remarking in 1943 that it was "one of the most difficult problems I have ever encountered". In his 1964 review of Australian owls, Mees treated Australian and New Zealand boobooks, along with several taxa from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as one species— Ninox novaeseelandiae —with 16 subspecies. In his 1968 book Nightwatchmen of
7310-460: The young often hatching at the same time. Occasionally, the time between the first and the last eggs hatching can be a few days. Newly hatched chicks are covered with whitish down , and are blind and largely helpless ( nidicolous ). Their eyes begin to open on day 6 and are fully open by day 15. The juvenile feathers begin growing through the down from days 7 to 10, covering the baby owls by two weeks of age. Their mother broods them continuously for
7396-413: Was seen as deriving from this. Some linguists hold that onomatopoeia may have been the first form of human language. When first exposed to sound and communication, humans are biologically inclined to mimic the sounds they hear, whether they are actual pieces of language or other natural sounds. Early on in development, an infant will vary his/her utterances between sounds that are well established within
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