BirdingNZ.net

Yes, barn owls could easily expand without people really noticing, given that they're mostly active at night and make calls that most New Zealanders would dismiss as possums. About five years ago a friend of my daughter saw at least one (the impression I got from my daughter was that it was more than one, but this is all second-hand and I'm not really sure of that) hawking moths in the lights around the Lions Lodge in the Tangihua Forest, about half way between Dargaville and Whangarei. This was during the Chronophonium music festival, 11-13 January 2013. Hawking moths sounds like unusual behaviour for barn owls, but the observer was quite clear that they were much bigger and paler than moreporks and looked just like the barn owls he'd seen on wildlife documentaries, and I've since had independent confirmation that they're in the general area.

Hi Chris,
Sorry I missed your post. Yes, it's great that there are a few more nests on the go and it's reasonable to suppose that they will be seen regularly in areas outside of Northland. Given our thin population density here and our even thinner birding population density there are likely to be quite a few undiscovered nest sites. Visiting birders welcome.
Les

Hi Les,

No problems. Yes I agree and I imagine most nests would likely go unseen and even with some people amazingly getting to see a reasonably large whitish Owl around somewhere, most would probably not even think to report it to anyone. Thanks again for your update and great to hear of their gradual increase in distribution.

Thanks,

Chris

On the subject of barn owl distribution, just heard a very vague, second-hand report that someone reckoned they saw one at Oropi, near Tauranga, a couple of months ago. Have pressed for further details, but none really forthcoming.

Just spoken to a local while walking the dog who noticed my bins and told me about these strange bird he saw a couple of months ago. It was 11.30 pm at an intersection amongst market garden/ lifestyle blocks in Bombay, he says the bird flew across the road in front of his car and his description was... looked like a pale coloured hawk with a round white face and flew like a plover. Interesting description and Barn owl came to mind!