Australian Owl (1 Viewer)

You should never go over old photos and 2nd guess.

this photo was taken at Julatten Cairns Nth Qld 2011. We labelled it Barking Owl. Chest strip, eye color seems right BUT the darkness of the head worried me. Even when I lighten the photo up the head is still very dark in contrastto the breast with what seem like a distinct line between the both. Quite a bit different than my guides show.

Lately looking through some of my other guides I found a sketch of a Brown Hawk owl which is an extremely rare possibility but not out of the realms of possibilty that seems to have this head breast contrast.

Please help me is this a barking owl or not?

I think its a Barking Owl Greg, breast pattern looks wrong for a Brown Hawk Owl.

Looks fine for Barking Owl to me.

I am no expert on Barking Owls but I am pretty sure this is not Brown Hawk-owl (or Boobook), a bird rather common over here.

Thanks for that as I suggested "2nd guessing"