DIET AND ROOST SITE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CHRISTMAS ISLAND HAWK-OWL NINOX-NATALIS

In a two year study, Christmas Island Hawk-Owls Ninox natalis chose to roost in the bottom third of the canopy of trees with particularly de ep crowns, in areas with fewer low understorey and more mid-level unde rstorey trees, suggesting a preference for sheltered, concealed, roost sites with easy escape routes below them. Analysis of regurgitated pe llets, stomach samples and faeces showed the owls to be primarily inse ctivorous, eating a wide variety of medium to large insects, especiall y Orthoptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. They supplemented this diet with vertebrates of which introduced Black Rats Rattus rattus were the most important in this study. Other studies have found native and int roduced geckos as well as the Christmas Island White-eye Zosterops nat alis in their diet. Owls snatched their prey from the understorey, haw ked insects around streetlights, 'long-stay perch hunted' along roadsi des and presumably also fed in and above the canopy.