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Small, isolated populations can be especially sensitive to poor habitat conditions due to their limited capacity to adapt or disperse. Management of such populations, with an objective to implement the most effective strategies, is a conservation priority. The Norfolk Island morepork Ninox novaeseelandiae undulata is a Critically Endangered hawk-owl endemic to Norfolk Island with an estimated population of 25 individuals. This species faces compounding threats from habitat degradation and loss, as well as inbreeding depression. It presents as an exemplar for the development of habitat management strategies for top-order predators in small, isolated systems. We used fine-scale LiDAR-derived habitat variables and high resolution morepork tracking data to quantify habitat suitability and the relative importance of environmental variables. Maximum entropy modelling indicated patch size was the most important habitat variable for morepork presence, with moreporks more likely to be found in larger patches of vegetation. Morepork presence was not strongly influenced by the type of wooded vegetation; rather, the species appears to be a generalist occupier of forested areas. We demonstrate that suitable habitat during the breeding season is currently constrained, with coverage limited to one third (34%) of the island and an estimated carrying capacity of just 36 morepork pairs. Restoration of native forest in cleared areas adjacent to existing wooded patches, with a specific goal to increase patch size, was the optimised management strategy to increase in situ carrying capacity. This study has demonstrated how habitat suitability modelling can …