Ninox is a genus of true owls comprising about 30 species found in Asia and Australasia. Many species are known as hawk owls or boobooks. Note that the northern hawk-owl Surnia ulula is not a member of this genus. Molecular analysis indicates the genus is an early offshoot from the ancestors of the rest of the true owls, and are maybe best-classified in a subfamily Ninoxinae with the genera Sceloglaux and Uroglaux. The genus was introduced by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1837.
The species of Ninox are:
Rufous owl, Ninox rufa
Powerful owl, Ninox strenua
Barking owl, Ninox connivens
Sumba boobook, Ninox rudolfi
Little Sumba hawk-owl, Ninox sumbaensis
Morepork, Ninox novaeseelandiaeNorfolk boobook, Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata - extinct (1996)
Lord Howe boobook, Ninox novaeseelandiae albaria - extinct (1950s)
Ninox novaeseelandiae leucopsis
Ninox novaeseelandiae novaeseelandiae
Southern boobook, Ninox boobookNinox boobook boobook
Ninox boobook cinnamomina
Ninox boobook fusca
Ninox boobook halmaturina
Ninox boobook lurida
Ninox boobook moae
Ninox boobook ocellata
Ninox boobook plesseni
Ninox boobook pusilla
Ninox boobook remigialis
Ninox boobook rotiensis
Andaman hawk-owl, Ninox affinis
Brown hawk-owl, Ninox scutulata
Hume's hawk-owl, Ninox obscura
Northern boobook, Ninox japonica
Chocolate boobook, Ninox randi
White-browed hawk-owl, Ninox superciliaris
Philippine hawk-owl group
Luzon hawk-owl, Ninox philippensis
Mindoro hawk-owl, Ninox mindorensis
Sulu hawk-owl, Ninox reyi
Mindanao hawk-owl, Ninox spilocephala
Romblon hawk-owl, Ninox spilonotus
Cebu hawk-owl, Ninox rumseyi
Camiguin hawk-owl, Ninox leventisi
Ochre-bellied boobook, Ninox ochracea
Cinnabar boobook, Ninox ios
Moluccan boobook group
Tanimbar boobook, Ninox forbesi
Halmahera boobook, Ninox hypogramma
Hantu boobook, Ninox squamipila
Christmas boobook, Ninox natalis
Papuan boobook, Ninox theomacha
Manus boobook, Ninox meeki
Speckled boobook, Ninox punctulata
New Ireland boobook, Ninox variegata
New Britain boobook, Ninox odiosa
Solomons boobook, Ninox jacquinoti
Togian boobook, Ninox burhani
The fossil owls "Otus" wintershofensis and "Strix" brevis, both from the Early or Middle Miocene of Wintershof West, Germany, are close to this genus; the latter was sometimes explicitly placed in Ninox (Olson 1985) but is now in Intutula. "Strix" edwardsi from the Late Miocene of La Grive St. Alban, France, might also belong into this group.
