Blakiston's fish owl

Its habitat is riparian forest with large, old trees for nest sites near lakes, rivers, springs, and shoals that do not freeze in winter.Henry Seebohm named this bird after the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen in Hakodate on Hokkaidō, Japan in 1883.Blakiston's fish owl was formally described in 1884 by the English amateur ornithologist Henry Seebohm from a specimen collected near Hakodate on the island of Hokkaido in Japan.[7][8] Although a few authors also include them in Bubo, the fishing owls of Africa (generally classified in the genus Scotopelia) seem to be fairly dissimilar.[7][8] Recent genetic testing in Russia indicates a fairly large divergence from the genomes of typical Bubo and suggests that they are indeed more closely aligned with other fish owls.The three largest species of eagle-owl, all found in Siberia and the Russian Far East, are close in size to the Blakiston's fish owl.According to Heimo Mikkola, the very largest specimen of eagle-owl was 30 mm (1.2 in) longer in bill-to-tail length than the longest Blakiston's fish owl, while the top weight of the two species is exactly the same.[6][11] Even the large Siberian races of eagle-owl are slightly smaller on average than the Blakiston's, at least in terms of body mass and wing size.It has been stated that the combination of wavy cross patterns on the underside of the Blakiston's plumage and its huge talons make it look strikingly like an outsized great horned owl (B. virginianus) from below.[24] Blakiston's fish owl occurs in dense, minimally or undisturbed old-growth forest near waterways including floodplains or wooded coastlines.[23][25] Blakiston's fish owls typically require stretches of productive rivers that remain at least partially unfrozen in winter.[23] Slower-moving streams are equally likely to support these owls as the main river channels and they only need a few meters of open water to survive a winter.Jonathan Slaght estimated that some fish caught are up to two to three times their own weight and has seen owls keep one foot on a tree root to be able to haul a large catch onto a bank.[3] The main prey suspected to be sought out in freezing winter months in flowing and brackish waters at the northeastern limits of their range were sculpin, lamprey and salmon, likely largely juveniles of the latter two types.[28] In Russia, amphibians are taken in great quantity in spring, especially Dybowski's frog (Rana dybowskii), and may come to seasonally outnumber fish in the diet during that time.[7][8][26] Blakiston's fish owls seem to co-exist with Steller's sea eagles (Haliaeetus pelagicus) and white-tailed eagles (H. albicilla) on the coasts of the rocky Kuril Islands but nothing is known how they relate with these larger fish-eating raptors, the presence of which has sometimes been theorized as partially the cause of the restricted range of the Blakiston's due to competition for similar food resources.[6][23] Fewer records are known of bird predation, but they are known to capture avian prey such as hazel grouse (Tetrastes bonasia) and a variety of waterfowl species.[6][26] It also takes carrion, as evidenced by fish owls in Russia being trapped in snares set for furbearing mammals, which use raw meat as bait.[31][33] Additionally, Blakiston's fish owl have now been recorded using temporarily abandoned nests of Steller's sea eagles.[12] Blakiston's fish owls can form pair bonds as early as their second year and reach sexual maturity by age three.[1] It is endangered due to the widespread loss of riverine forest, increasing land development along rivers and dam construction.[38] In Russia, fish owls are killed by fur-trappers, drown in nets set for salmon, and are shot by hunters.[23] Local conservation efforts in Japan have been undertaken including education, installation of large nest-boxes and supplemental feeding.