morepork

/ ˈmɔːˌpɔːk /

noun

1. Also called: ruru. a small spotted owl, Ninox novaeseelandiae, of Australia and New Zealand

2. slang,  a slow or lugubrious person

Example Sentences

Other birds that did well in this year's competition and have never won before were the takahē, which was once thought to have been extinct before being brought back from the brink, and the enigmatic ruru or morepork - a type of small owl.

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"Similarly, the Morepork, a small owl species, is least concerned globally due to its large range size in New Zealand, but its subspecies in Norfolk Island is critically endangered in Australia, while its other subspecies from Lord Howe Island has already gone extinct."

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The bell-bird and the tui sing a requiem over them by day, while the morepork and the kiwi wail for them at night.

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The New Zealand Morepork is assuredly an owl.

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A bird of the owl species, called by the colonists morepork, and by the natives whuck-whuck, derives both its names from the peculiarity of its note.

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