It had reddish brown plumage streaked with darker brown and a white face. Unconfirmed sightings of Laughing Owls came in from the North Island in 1925 and in 1927 one was supposedly heard at Lake Waikaremoana when it flew over giving a weird cry,almost maniacal in Nature. 1/1-020529-G Photographed (in the Wellington Region?) Although the laughing owl has not been positively sighted for 80 years, its relics are yielding insights into our fauna as it was […] Similar species: the little owl is slightly smaller and much paler than the morepork. Voice: the distinctive ‘kiew’ contact call of the little owl is a common evening sound throughout lowland Nelson, Marlborough, Canterbury, Otago and Southland. The Laughing Owl was a moderate sized Owl 14 – 15” in height and with a wingspan of 10.4”. The Laughing owl, endemic to New Zealand, became extinct in the early 20th century. Identified by Kennedy Warne, NZ Geographic, 1996. It seemed however, the Laughing Owl was not totally through. Physical Description Adults were dark brown in color with yellowish-brown longitudinal stripes.
There were white straps on the hind neck and scapulars. "Whekau or Laughing Owl" courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand. The last recorded bird was found dead at Blue Cliffs, in Canterbury, NZ.

The North and South Island birds were sub-species. The laughing owl (Ninox albifacies), also known as whēkau or the white-faced owl, was an endemic owl of New Zealand.Plentiful when European settlers arrived in New Zealand, its scientific description was published in 1845, but it was largely or completely extinct by 1914. Mated pairs sometimes perform this number as a duet, too. The Fiordland Laughing Owl was officially declared extinct in July 1914. T he bird had much the same reddish brown plumage as the Morepork but was much larger and had a white face.

The laughing owl was twice the size of a Morepork (38 centimeters from head to tail) with very long legs. They were found in great numbers when European settlers came to New Zealand. It's legs were covered in feathers and it had sharp claws. However, reports about the Laughing Owl of Fiordland persist. between 1889 and 1910 by Henry Charles Clarke Wright (1844-1936). The South Island birds were larger than the smaller North Island species; males were generally smaller than females. In days of old, the night forests of New Zealand echoed to the screeching “laugh” of an owl twice the size of a morepork, which preyed on any creature smaller than itself. The bird has many different calls, including the startling hooting sound it uses for courtship.

Around four times the size of its modern day relative the morepork, the laughing owl became extinct around 100 years ago, however it lives on in this specially designed coin.
The laughing owl coin is the fourth in the New Zealand Annual Coin series that features extinct species of New Zealand. But in the end, in the ridiculous-sounding-birds contest, the Willow Ptarmigan “wins by a landslide,” says Lund. Reference No. The tarsus was covered with reddish […] A couple of weeks ago, somehow or other, I came across the Wikipedia page for the Laughing Owl of New Zealand, which was officially declared extinct nearly 100 years ago (specifically: July 5, 1914, when the last recorded owl of the species was found dead in Canterbury, NZ). The Barred Owl is never laughing with you—it’s laughing at you.