Prey deliveries at eight nests of the Southern Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae in Canberra

In raptors, males are said to deliver most of the prey items during the breeding season. In this study we compared male versus female prey deliveries at eight nests of Southern Boobook Ninox novaeseelandiae in Canberra. We observed the incubation period on 103 nights, nestling /fl edging period on 143 nights, for a total of 246 nights. Females hunted through the incubation period. Prey deliveries for males and females combined averaged 8.90 items per hour during the nestling period and 11.04 per hour during the fl edging period, in the fi rst hour or two after dusk. In the fi rst half of the nestling period (weeks 1–3) females delivered signifi cantly more prey items per hour than males did (3.44/hour compared to 1.60/hour). Females hunted near the nest and delivered more invertebrates than did males. In the second half of the nestling period, (weeks 4–6), there was no signifi cant difference in the number of prey deliveries between males (5.11 items/hr) and females (5.84 items/hr). For the total nestling period, (weeks 1–6), females made 5.01 deliveries per hour, significantly higher than male deliveries at 3.90 per hour. There was no signifi cant difference in the number of prey deliveries to fledged young by males (5.29/hr) and females (5.75/hr). Both males and females delivered vertebrate prey. These data do not fi t the ‘normal’ pattern of male/female behaviour found in most raptor studies.