The Powerful Owl, which is listed as vulnerable in Queensland, has been increasingly observed in urban areas of the past few decades, according to BirdLife Southern Queensland project officer Rob Clemens.

So the organisation has put out the call for south-east Queensland residents to become citizen scientists to help monitor the bird after the success of a similar initiative in Sydney.

“The long-term conservation of this species will require management actions within urban environments,” Mr Clemens told the Jimboomba Times.

Would-be citizen scientists willing to help with monitoring in south-east Queensland would be trained on what was required, safety issues, and ethics.

Mr Clemens said monitors would listen for the owls at night and follow up by visiting owl territories during the day.

“We will coordinate the effort so that we spread the load among the owls,” he said.

“We don’t broadcast the location of the owls too widely.

“Some pairs don’t get disturbed too easily but some don’t breed successfully if there is a lot of activity around the nest.”

The Powerful Owl mates for life, according to the Australian Museum which describes it as Australia’s largest owl ranging in size from 50 to 60cm.

It communicates with a “deep, double hoot: 'woo-hoo”, which is frequently confused with the call of other nocturnal birds particularly the Tawny Frogmouth which makes a “soft, deep and continuous low oom oom oom’’ sound.

Mr Clemens said information gathered by citizen scientists would be used to make recommendations on what can be done to ensure successful breeding of owls in urban areas.

The powerful owl program in Sydney was launched in 2011 and raised awareness with an estimated one million people in NSW.

It reached more than 2500 people at talks and about 400 citizen science volunteers were recruited.

For more information or to express your interest in taking part, email brisbane.owls@gmail.com.

The story originally appeared on the Jimboomba Times.