#2537 - Ninox albifacies - Laughing Owl
AKA whēkau, hakoke, the jackass, or the white-faced owl. Originally described as Athene albifacies, then Sceloglaux ("scoundrel owl"), then Ieraglaux, and in 2016 moved to Ninox, after genetic studes of their remains revealed that they were actually closely related to the Australian and Asian Boobook Owls.
Once plentiful, and cheerfully preyed on introduced rats. Unfortunately, cheerfully preyed on by cats and stoats, and probably extinct by 1914. Possible sightings continued to the 1950s.
The call of the laughing owl was described as "a loud cry made up of a series of dismal shrieks frequently repeated", "A peculiar barking noise ... just like the barking of a young dog"; "Precisely the same as two men 'cooeying' to each other from a distance"; "A melancholy hooting note", or a high-pitched chattering on dark and drizzly nights or immediately preceding rain, and various whistling, chuckling and mewing.
One correspondent claimed that laughing owls would be attracted by accordions.
Whanganui Regional Museum, New Zealand.
