Morepork
Morepork, also known as Ruru, are New Zealand’s last remaining native Owl – but these guys don’t plan on going anywhere. Common throughout the country, their tenacious attitude has made them a staple sight of Aotearoa. You can often hear these birds at night – calling from across forests and valleys. This may or may not have been particularly alarming for any stranded 18th century sailors, as rumours of cannibals enjoying “long pig” coupled with haunting calls for “more pork” in the night may elicit a different interpretation.
Like most owls, Morepork are nocturnal hunters – targeting small birds, insects, and geckos. Their favourite snacks include Weta and spiders, so you can imagine what their pantry would be like. As mentioned, Morepork often dine on various small birds – something the sparrows and faintails seem to disagree with. In an effort to scare them away before there’s any casualties, fantails and other small birds gang up on lone owls during the day – mobbing them with divebombs and frantic tweeting.
Ironically, the only time I saw a Ruru outside of captivity was during the day. While walking the dogs, we spotted the bird not too far from the path perched on a vine. It paid little attention to us or our dogs – which were too dim to realise what was happening and opted to simply wander as far as the leash would allow, likely sick of us humans standing around for no discernible reason. Apparently, indifference like this is unusual. These owls tend to be curious – usually just staring right back at you from a safe distance. That is, until you cross a line, and they fly away as silently as when they were still. This is because most owls, including Morepork, have special feathers that dampen the sound of their flight – at the cost of some speed. Owl feathers have serrated edges, while most birds have the more aerodynamic smooth-edges. This extra surface area and spread muffles the sound of flight, essentially switching the birds to “stealth mode”. It’s probably why their prey is so eager to scare them off during the day, because at night they’re virtually undetectable. If there ever was a Boogeyman of Aotearoa, it’d be the Morepork – especially to any poor invertebrate that ends up in their territory.
Oh, Ruru, what big eyes you have!
7/10 – An adorable airborne assassin