Australia's largest owl, the majestic and endangered powerful owl, is finding an unlikely home in the green areas of our city suburbs, and the Australian public is being called on to help track the nocturnal birds.

Birdlife Australia has launched the Powerful Owl Project (POP), with a raft of information about the owl, including audio of its call and an app to help citizen scientists map the general location and movement of individuals in metropolitan areas.

Identifying the powerful owl may be easier than assumed — it's the only owl in south-eastern Australia with a classic double 'hoo-hoo' call.

The predatory bird stands up to 60cm tall, and has piercing yellow eyes, reddish white plumage, and long yellow legs with big talons, making it especially attractive to bird watchers and photographers.

While its ability to adapt to an urban environment appears encouraging, the stark reality is that there are only around 5,000 known individuals in the wild.

The majority are found in New South Wales but they have also been identified in Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland.

Making a home in the suburbs

Powerful Owl Project manager Dr Beth Mott can be found most days in the urban field, binoculars in hand, on the lookout for newly-reported powerful owl nesting and roosting locations.

Researchers are asking the public to help them track the powerful owl's behaviours. ( Supplied: Peter Hinton )

"Powerful owls are undergoing a real resurgence at the moment and unlike many threatened species, they actually do very well in urban spaces, and particularly the greater Sydney basin," Dr Mott said.

"Data we've collected from our citizen scientists shows us that most powerful owl breeding in urban spaces is going on within 50 metres of the urban boundary.

"[They] really love to be in those small green fingers that project into the suburbs: gullies, creek lines, parks.

"They need large trees with hollows for their nests that you tend to find standing proudly around suburban streets."

Dr Mott said the birds also found the suburbs to be great hunting grounds, more so than the forest.

"They're moving into our own backyards, and catching possums on the power lines, and sometimes sitting on the guinea pig pen and looking for a bit of dinner," she said.

Studies in urban areas have shown that there has been an average breeding success rate of 76 per cent over the past three years, offset by high rates of mortality in young chicks.

In addition, an increasing loss of breeding adult birds through car strikes means a natural upswing in the powerful owl population could be followed by a future crash, Dr Mott said.

Magpie with talons?

The powerful owl in the urban environment has recently received attention due to the proposed Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens zipline project in Brisbane.

Owls have been nesting in the Mt Coot-tha Reserve for the past 30 years and following concerns the owls could potentially swoop patrons, the proposed zipline has been shifted 100 metres from the owls' nesting tree.

Two powerful owls sit on a branch together in the Mount Coot-tha Reserve in Brisbane. ( Supplied: Richard Jackson )

Dr Beth believes the zipline's location would have posed a greater threat to owls than patrons, and downplays the risk of birds attacking.

"They are a large bird [and] there's been some talk that they could be dangerous to people," she said.

"We've found that less than 1 per cent of the population does the swooping behaviour, and that's just for 6 weeks during nesting season."

She said that behaviour was associated with stress that birds faced within the urban area, such as encroachment.

"Because people love to see them, the powerful owl is exposed to a high frequency of photography, for example, and have been known to abandon their nest when disturbed too much," Dr Mott said.

Umbrella species

The urban green spaces being used by the powerful owl typically exist outside of protected spaces like national parks and reserves, so managing disturbances like fire, urban expansion, and bush regeneration is regarded as essential in supporting powerful owl breeding in the suburbs.

Regarded an umbrella species, when protected the powerful owl will in turn protect a suite of other wildlife, including small birds, frogs, echidnas and threatened nocturnal birds like sooty and masked owl.

Dr Beth Mott (left) and Birds in Backyards program manager Dr Holly Parsons are encouraging locals to help. ( ABC Illawarra: Sean O'Brien )

"One really cool thing we are finding is that if a place has been a good territory for owls, provided we don't change it too much, it is likely that owls will use it again," Dr Mott said.

"Our data provides a great case for proactive management of our bushlands and parks, and for retaining green space in the urban matrix: If you protect it, they will come."

Get involved in Aussie backyard bird count

Birdlife Australia, a not-for-profit organisation involved in bird conservation, is especially proactive in seeking data on the powerful owl in urban areas and advocating for habitat protection.

Program manager Dr Holly Parsons stresses the importance of public participation in protecting and documenting the powerful owl.

"The Birds in Backyards program is all about the birds that live where we live," she said.

"We encourage people to create a great habitat and look after the birds in their gardens, including the powerful owl, but we also want to keep track of them, so people can take part in surveys for us.

"We're coming up to Bird Week so from October 22, we're running our annual Aussie backyard bird count.

"Anyone in Australia with a backyard, or park, or favourite green space can go out and count birds in that space for 20 minutes and, via an app, send us information on what they've seen.

"It's a snapshot and we make decisions based on all the information we get from these amazing volunteers [and] citizen scientists.

"We use that information when we're talking to councils, working with land managers, to get our urban spaces much more rich and wonderful for our urban birdlife."