Diet of the Speckled Boobook Ninox punctulata in North Sulawesi, Indonesia

The ecology of most of Sulawesi’s owl species is poorly known (Bishop 1989, Debus 2002, Fitzsimons 2010). The Speckled Boobook Ninox punctulata is one of four Ninox species that are endemic to Sulawesi and its satellite islands, although the recent discovery by Madika et al. (2011) could bring up this number to five. It occurs throughout the island and inhabits forests and disturbed lowland habitats (White & Bruce 1986, Coates & Bishop 1997). König et al. (2008: 469) stated it to be ‘widespread and common within its restricted range’. Despite being one of the commoner Ninox species on Sulawesi, little is known about its diet. Marks et al. (1999: 236) suggested that there is ‘almost no information on diet’. König et al. (2008: 469) described its food as ‘presumably mainly insects’ and that ‘the biology and ecology....of this species needs study’. Coates & Bishop (1997: 363) noted it ‘has been recorded foraging along narrow streams within primary forest’. Rozendaal & Dekker (1989) reported a bird killing a Swift Fruit Bat Thoopterus nigrescens ‘in a net over a river in dense primary forest’. Here we describe components of the diet of the Speckled Boobook based on prey remains and pellets collected at a sheltered roost site in north Sulawesi, with a view to increasing ecological understanding of this species, and possibly helping predict its sensitivity to ecological disturbance. Forktail, Vol. 28. Hal. 169-171