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Taxonomic note
Tyto novaehollandiae (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) was previously split into T. novaehollandiae, T. manusi and T. sororcula following Christidis and Boles (1994), before which T. castanops was also split following Sibley and Monroe (1990, 1993). Tyto almae (del Hoyo and Collar 2014) was described by Jønsson et al. (2013) from a single specimen as a separate species on the basis of morphology, coloration and mtDNA but morphological differences from sororcula (also known from very few specimens) are slight; and the available genetic data (mtDNA only) suggest that neither almae nor sororcula show significant genetic divergence from novaehollandiae (Jønsson et al. 2013, Uva et al. 2018). In recent decades, subspecies castanops sometimes treated as a separate species, and recent molecular analysis suggests that this may be appropriate (Jønsson et al. 2013), but further evidence (morphological, vocal and genetic) needed; meanwhile, size and colour variation within S Australian populations support inclusion within present species, at subspecific level. In addition, forms sororcula and manusi, previously treated as two separate species, recently found to be better treated as subspecies of present species (Jønsson et al. 2013); further, has been suggested that New Guinea population calabyi is approaching species level, but again differences seem not to be sufficiently marked, and this taxon recently found (Jønsson et al. 2013) to be more closely related to cayelii, which was previously treated as a subspecies of sororcula when latter given full species status. Subspecies galei sometimes merged with kimberli, as observed differences may not be constant and few specimens have been used in analyses. Birds of SW Western Australia may merit separation as a distinct subspecies owing to significantly larger size, but more study needed; formerly separated in subspecies perplexa. Cave-dwelling population of South Australia described as troughtoni; may be worthy of subspecific treatment, but remains very poorly known. Ten subspecies currently recognized.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2023. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 8. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v8_Dec23.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2023	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	does not normally occur in forest
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	13,400,000 km2
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	-
Generation length	5.01 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	10-15	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: The overall global population size has not been quantified, but the species is described as uncommon to rare, although common on Tasmania (Morcombe 2000). The population size of subspecies T. n. castanops is estimated at c.850 mature individuals, and T. n. melvillensis at c.2,400 (Cisterne et al. 2021, Ryan et al. 2021). T. n. kimberli is estimated at c.3,000 mature individuals (Barden et al. 2021) and T. n. galei is thought to approach 1,000 mature individuals (Jackett and Garnett 2021).

Trend justification: The overall population trend has not been assessed directly, however subspecies castanops, kimberli and melvillensis are thought to be in decline (Barden et al. 2021, Cisterne et al. 2021, Ryan et al. 2021). Although the overall trend is unclear and it may be stable in some parts of the range, the threats are ongoing and the poorly known insular subspecies may also be under threat. The global population is therefore precautionarily suspected to be declining.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Australia	extant	native	yes
Indonesia	extant	native	yes
Papua New Guinea	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Pastureland	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Subtropical/Tropical Heavily Degraded Former Forest	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level	suitable	resident
Forest	Temperate	suitable	resident
Grassland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Grassland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Dry	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Subtropical/Tropical Moist	suitable	resident
Shrubland	Temperate	suitable	resident
Altitude	0 - 700 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Annual & perennial non-timber crops - Small-holder farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Agro-industry grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Agriculture & aquaculture	Livestock farming & ranching - Small-holder grazing, ranching or farming	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (large scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Climate change & severe weather	Storms & flooding	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Invasive non-native/alien species/diseases - Felis catus	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Natural system modifications	Fire & fire suppression - Increase in fire frequency/intensity	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Pollution	Agricultural & forestry effluents - Herbicides and pesticides	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Residential & commercial development	Housing & urban areas	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Species factsheet: Australasian Masked-owl Tyto novaehollandiae. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/australasian-masked-owl-tyto-novaehollandiae on 06/01/2025.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2025) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 06/01/2025.