A medium-sized owl without ear hair. Females are usually 350 grams heavier than males, but one of the pairs exhibits opposite size dimorphisms. Some individuals are reported to be more pale and forbidden, but both sexes are often similar in feathers. The plumage is generally jet black, with large, dark eyes embedded in a round face disc from grayish white to jet black, with the darkest around the eyes and the whitenest edges. The crown , neck , upper limbs , and breasts are brownish-black with small white spots; the flight feathers and tail are black. The lower abdomen and thighs are dark, with subtle irregular dark color barriers. The iris is black brown with a white creamy beak; there are thick feathers on the legs to dark gray toes, and huge black or dark brown paws on the toes. Juvenile, fluffy juveniles with white to off-white bands; immature resemble adults, but have broad black surrounding eyes and dark mottled lower parts. In flight it exhibits rounded and relatively uniform wings. The call sound was much more powerful than the small soot owl, unable to progress downwards. The most famous cry is a long descending whistle, which is aptly likened to the sound of a falling bomb.
Food and hunting this is a generalist that preys on any available small and medium-sized mammal, including opossums, bats, and giant rats, and sometimes also preys on small birds and reptiles. It catches prey from the forest canopy to the ground.
It inhabits rainforests, tall moist eucalyptus forests and forest edges, from lowlands to at least 3660 m. Status and distribution This owl occurs in New Guinea, including Yapen Island, and eastern Australia except for much of Queensland. It may be rare and endangered in southeastern Australia, but is widely distributed in New Guinea. The geographic variation of two races is known: very large T. Tenebricosa, from Australia; usually brown and much smaller (500-750g) T. Alfaki, almost all of New Guinea.
Similar species geographically separated small soot owls are smaller and paler, but some birds from Papua New Guinea resemble small soot owls in plumage color. Both species need to be studied in more detail.