Brown Fish Owl


Brown Fish Owl

 

(Ketupa blakistoni), a bird of the family Strigidae having a body length of approximately 70 cm. The talons are not feathered. The plumage is ocherous brown with dark longitudinal and transverse mottling. The brown fish owl is found in the eastern USSR (from Magadan to Primor’e), on Sakhalin Island, on the southern Kuril Islands, in Japan, and in northeastern China. The bird is rare throughout its range. It is sedentary and very secretive, living in pairs or singly in coastal thickets along swift rivers well-stocked with fish. The brown fish owl frequently moves on foot in shallows. Its nesting habits have not been studied. The owl eats primarily fish, which it hunts in shallows.