Extract from ABC News
Feel good
This masked owl, which is endemic to the Tiwi Islands, was captured in a series of rare photos. (Supplied: Craig Kurrujuwa Winston)
A traditional owner on a north Australian island has captured rare photos of an "enchanting" masked owl, adding to a limited knowledge base surrounding the endemic and culturally significant bird.
Local avid birdwatcher Craig Kurrujuwa Winston first heard the Tiwi Islands masked owl — or pinjoma, as it's known in Indigenous culture — was in the vicinity when his little brother spotted it earlier this year.
Craig Kurrujuwa Winston says plenty of unique birds and wildlife call the Tiwi Islands home. (Supplied)
Days later at around 9pm, Mr Winston saw the bird perched in his Melville Island yard, scoping out a brushtail possum.
"I came outside and noticed this white facial figure just staring right at me, and I instantly knew, 'Oh wow, yep, I know exactly what you are'," he said.
"It just felt magical.
"It was very smart and calculating, trying to work out the best angle of attack to get at the possum."
Before Mr Winston logged his sighting of the "enchanting" creature on iNaturalist, there were no images of the Tiwi Islands masked owl listed on the citizen science database.
The bird was scoping out a nearby possum at the time, with photos of it later uploaded online. (Supplied: Craig Kurrujuwa Winston)
"I know that there's not much data or behavioural information on this particular species so I knew I had to get a photo of it," he said.
"It's kind of on my wishlist, I guess, of rare animals."
Connecting to culture, community
Mr Winston — who is undertaking a degree in ecology, evolution and organismal biology — said the sighting was also culturally significant, as the owl links back to Dreamtime stories.
"It'll be probably going back to just after the creation period in our mythology," he said.
"I know that a lot of my tribal mothers, especially from Melville Island side, their totem is that masked owl — so it's of special significance to them.
"I've got nieces and nephews that have it as their totem as well."
With Australia's birdwatching community continuing to grow, Mr Winston said the popular hobby was "like my comfort zone".
He said the iNaturalist community was like "real-life Pokemon Go — you go around, find plants, animals, insects, take photos".
"You upload them to the app, along with the location data, and scientists and other people can identify stuff for you."
He said sharing his masked owl sighting generated "some buzz" on social media, leading another birder to upload their own images taken on Tiwi Islands years prior.
"Now there's a few more [publicly available] photos of it, which is really cool," Mr Winston said.
Protecting nature into the future
According to the Tiwi Land Council, the local species is endangered at both a federal and Northern Territory level.
Mr Winston said the bird was endemic to the Tiwi Islands, meaning it can't be found anywhere else in the world.
Photos of the masked owl were uploaded on the internet for others to enjoy. (Supplied: Craig Kurrujuwa Winston)
He said plenty of "amazing plants and insects" live on the outstation he also calls home, and he described the islands more broadly as a "biodiversity hotspot".
"I would like to get where I live as a protected zone, because there's heaps of raptors and other rare species that live where we do,"the birdwatcher said.
"I got photos of a red goshawk last year [and] once the roads clear up, I'm going to go out and visit that nesting site again."
Mr Winston said rare marsupials, including the northern brush-tail phascogale, have also been spotted on the outstation.
"I locked eyes with one a couple of nights ago but it took off before I could get a photo," he said.
The red goshawk was spotted on the Tiwi Islands last year. (Supplied: Craig Kurrujuwa Winston)
He said priority conservation status, or having the region officially listed as a biodiversity hotspot, would help encourage further research and grant funding to ensure those rare species are protected.
"If I could get the Tiwi Islands World Heritage listed, that would be amazing," Mr Winston said.
"That'd be an awesome contribution to science.
"My dream is to get a wildlife or rehabilitation sanctuary built because, in the past, there was a masked owl that needed surgery or veterinary care — it got sent to Darwin but, because of biosecurity laws, it couldn't be sent back to the islands."
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