title: Ninox
text: Ninox is a genus of true owls comprising 36 species found in Asia and Australasia. Many species are known as hawk-owls or boobooks, but the northern hawk-owl (Surnia ulula) is not a member of this genus.
  
  Taxonomy
  The genus was introduced by English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1837 with the type species as Ninox nipalensis, a junior synonym of Strix lugubris Tickell 1833. Strix lugubris is now considered a subspecies of the brown boobook (Ninox scutula lugubris).
  
  Species
  The genus contains 37 species:
  
  † Laughing owl,  Ninox albifacies (extinct)
   Rufous owl,  Ninox rufa
   Powerful owl,  Ninox strenua
   Barking owl,  Ninox connivens
   Sumba boobook,  Ninox rudolfi
   Australian boobook, Ninox boobook
   Rote boobook Ninox rotiensis 
   Timor boobook Ninox fusca
   Alor boobook, Ninox plesseni
   Tasmanian boobook, Ninox leucopsis
   Morepork,  Ninox novaeseelandiae
   Northern boobook, Ninox japonica
   Brown boobook,  Ninox scutulata
   Hume's boobook,  Ninox obscura
   Chocolate boobook, Ninox randi
   Andaman boobook,  Ninox affinis
   Philippine hawk-owl group
   Luzon boobook, Ninox philippensis
   Mindanao boobook, Ninox spilocephala
   Camiguin boobook, Ninox leventisi
   Sulu boobook, Ninox reyi
   Cebu boobook, Ninox rumseyi
   Romblon boobook, Ninox spilonotus
   Mindoro boobook, Ninox mindorensis
   Least boobook, Ninox sumbaensis
   Togian boobook, Ninox burhani
   Ochre-bellied boobook,  Ninox ochracea
   Cinnabar boobook,  Ninox ios
   Moluccan boobook group
   Halmahera boobook, Ninox hypogramma
   Buru boobook, Ninox hantu
   Seram boobook, Ninox squamipila
   Tanimbar boobook, Ninox forbesi
   Christmas boobook,  Ninox natalis
   Manus boobook,  Ninox meeki
   Papuan boobook,  Ninox theomacha
   Speckled boobook,  Ninox punctulata
   New Britain boobook,  Ninox odiosa
   New Ireland boobook,  Ninox variegata
  
  Genomic studies of the extinct laughing owl of New Zealand indicate that it actually belongs in Ninox rather than the monotypic genus Sceloglaux. The fossil owls "Otus" wintershofensis and "Strix" brevis, both from the Early or Middle Miocene of Wintershof, 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.
  
  In human culture 
  "NINOX" is an Australian Army project to develop night-vision goggles; it is named after Ninox strenua.
  
  References
  
  Olson, Storrs L. (1985): IX.C. Strigiformes. In: Farner, D.S.; King, J.R. & Parkes, Kenneth C. (eds.): Avian Biology 8: 129–132. Academic Press, New York.
  
  Further reading
  
   
  Bird genera
  Taxa named by Brian Houghton Hodgson