CreatureData

Powerful owl

Ninox strenua (Gould, 1838)

LCLeast Concernowls

The powerful owl (Ninox strenua) is a species in the family Strigidae, order Strigiformes. Recorded adults weigh 1.25 kg to 1.45 kg. Source checklists list it for 1 country: Australia. Its IUCN Red List status is Least Concern.

Powerful owl (Ninox strenua)
Photo: Greg Sharkey · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts about the powerful owl

Weight
1.25 kg – 1.45 kgsrc for Weight
Length
Not recorded
Wingspan
1.1 m – 1.4 msrc for Wingspan
Lifespan
Not recorded
Diet
Carnivoresrc for Diet
Main food
Not recorded
Habitat
forestsrc for Habitat
Egg incubation
36 dayssrc for Egg incubation
Young per litter or clutch
2src for Young per litter or clutch
Lifestyle
Perchingsrc for Lifestyle
Migration
Partialsrc for Migration
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
Countries on record
1 countrysrc for Countries on record

How big is the powerful owl?

POWERFUL OWL · WINGSPAN 1.4 MADULT HUMAN · HEIGHT 1.7 M
At 1.4 m, the recorded maximum wingspan of the powerful owl is about 82% of the height of an adult human (1.7 m, a fixed reference used for scale).

Where does the powerful owl live?

Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.

The powerful owl is listed for 1 country.

Australia
  • Listed
  • Not listed
small islands are not drawn at this scale

The same countries as a list

  1. Australia

Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.

What is the powerful owl?

Quoted from WikipediaCC BY-SA 4.0

The powerful owl (Ninox strenua), a species of owl native to south-eastern and eastern Australia, is the largest owl on the continent. It is found in coastal areas and in the Great Dividing Range, rarely more than 200 km (120 mi) inland. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species also refers to this species as the powerful boobook.

An apex predator in its narrow distribution, powerful owls are often opportunists, like most predators, but generally are dedicated to hunting arboreal mammals, in particular small to medium-sized marsupials. Such prey can comprise about three-quarters of their diet. Generally, this species lives in primary forests with tall, native trees, but can show some habitat flexibility when not nesting.

The powerful owl is a typically territorial raptorial bird that maintains a large home range and has long intervals between egg-laying and hatching of clutches. Also, like many types of raptorial birds, they must survive a long stretch to independence in young owls after fledging. Unlike most raptorial birds, however, male powerful owls are larger and stronger than females, so the male takes the dominant position in the mating pair, which extends to food distribution.

From the Wikipedia article “Powerful owl” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Powerful_owl&oldid=1384005201), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.

Is the powerful owl endangered?

The powerful owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.

  1. LCLeast Concern
  2. NTNear Threatened
  3. VUVulnerable
  4. ENEndangered
  5. CRCritically Endangered
  6. EWExtinct in the Wild
  7. EXExtinct

Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.

How is the powerful owl classified?

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. phylumChordata
  3. classAves
  4. orderStrigiformes
  5. familyStrigidae
  6. genusNinox
  7. SpeciesNinox strenua (Gould, 1838)

Synonyms Athene strenua, Ninox strenua victoriae

Other names and names in other languages (32)
  • Powerful boobookEnglish
  • Powerful boobookEnglish
  • nínox grosCatalan
  • sovka statnáCzech
  • gwalchdylluan bwerusWelsh
  • Stor HøgeugleDanish
  • RiesenkauzGerman
  • granda nizostrigoEsperanto
  • Nínox robustoSpanish
  • suur-haugaskakkEstonian
  • isohaukkapöllöFinnish
  • Ninoxe puissanteFrench
  • velika ćukušaCroatian
  • nagy héjabagolyHungarian
  • Gufastore possenteItalian
  • Civetta reale australianaItalian
  • オニアオバズクJapanese
  • didingoji aštrianagė pelėdaLithuanian
  • Grote ValkuilDutch
  • Grote BoeboekuilDutch
  • våkugleNorwegian
  • sowica wielkaPolish
  • coruja-poderosaPortuguese
  • coruja-gavião-poderosaPortuguese
  • Гигантская иглоногая соваRussian
  • sovka veľkáSlovak
  • Moćni bubukSerbian
  • större spökugglaSwedish
  • Büyük BubukTurkish
  • сова-голконіг гігантськаUkrainian
  • 猛鷹鴞Chinese
  • 猛鹰鸮Chinese

Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistWikidataIUCN Red List

Relatives of the powerful owl

Other species in the same genus Ninox.

LC, Least Concern
Morepork (Ninox novaeseelandiae)

Morepork

Ninox novaeseelandiae

Strigidae

ComparePowerful owl vs Brown boobookPowerful owl vs MoreporkPowerful owl vs Barking owlPowerful owl vs Andaman boobook

Common questions

Answered only where our data holds the answer.

How big is the powerful owl?

An adult powerful owl weighs 1.25 kg – 1.45 kg and has a wingspan of 1.1 m – 1.4 m, according to values recorded on Wikidata.

Where does the powerful owl live?

Catalogue of Life checklists list the powerful owl for 1 country: Australia. Checklist coverage is uneven, so the true range may be wider.

Is the powerful owl endangered?

The powerful owl is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, meaning it is not currently at risk of extinction.

What kind of animal is the powerful owl?

The powerful owl (Ninox strenua) belongs to the family Strigidae in the order Strigiformes.

Sources and how to cite this page

Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.

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APA

CreatureData. (2026). Powerful owl (Ninox strenua). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/powerful-owl

MLA

“Powerful owl (Ninox strenua).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/powerful-owl.

BibTeX
@misc{powerful_owl_2026,
  title = {Powerful owl (Ninox strenua)},
  author = {{CreatureData}},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/powerful-owl},
  note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}