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Blakiston's Fish Owl - BirdForum Opus

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Nominate subspecies
Photo © by DaninJapan
Rausu, Hokkaido, Japan, 14 December 2010

Alternative name: Blakiston's Eagle-Owl

Ketupa blakistoni

Bubo blakistoni

Identification

Nominate subspecies
Photo © by Dave 2x
Hokkaido, Japan, July 2014

Length: 60-75cm (23¾-29½ in)

  • Buff brown, streaked upperparts
  • Pale buff brown underparts
  • Frayed ear tufts
  • White throat
  • Yellow iris
Nominate subspecies
Photo © by Godwin Chan
Hokkaido, Japan, 12 April 2023

Distribution

Asia: found in the Russian Far East (including Sakhalin, where last seen in 1974) northeastern China, and Japan (Hokkaido); may be present in North Korea.

Taxonomy

Bubo vs. Ketupa

The genus Ketupa as traditionally defined is embedded within the traditional genus Bubo, while genus Scotopelia may be embedded within the Ketupa group of species, or perhaps is sister to this clade. One solution is to move all species to Bubo, which was done by some checklists in the past. Another solution is to move some species from Bubo to Ketupa, which is the solution currently favored by both the IOC and Clements checklists, and here also implemented in The Opus. The current composition of Ketupa can be seen in the genus page Ketupa.

Subspecies

Two subspecies are recognized[1]:

  • K. b. doerriesi:
  • K. b. blakistoni:
  • Sakhalin Island, southern Kuril Islands, and northern Japan (Hokkaido)

Habitat

Riparian forest, near water.

Behaviour

Diet

Nominate subspecies
Photo © by edenwatcher
Hokkaido, Japan, February 2008

The diet includes fish, amphibians, small mammals and birds.

Breeding

It nests in trees.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  2. Avibase
  3. Wikipedia contributors. (2019, April 29). Blakiston's fish owl. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03:19, May 20, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blakiston%27s_fish_owl&oldid=894779709
  4. BirdLife International (2023) Species factsheet: Bubo blakistoni. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 22/04/2023.
  5. Holt, D.W., Berkley, R., Deppe, C., Enríquez Rocha, P., Petersen, J.L., Rangel Salazar, J.L., Segars, K.P., Wood, K.L., Sharpe, C.J. & Marks, J.S. (2019). Blakiston's Eagle-owl (Bubo blakistoni). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/55023 on 20 May 2019).

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1


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