The World's Rarest Owl - Blakiston's Fish-Owl

[Donkees]

Blakiston's Fish Owl (Ketupa blakistoni) fishing in frozen river, Japan
Photographer: Claude Balcaen


Blakiston's Fish-Owl (Ketupa blakistoni) legs with talons, Hokkaido, Japan
Photographer: Tadashi Shimada


Blakiston's fish owl (Bubo, Ketupa blakistoni) chick close up head portrait, Primorskiy krai, Russia
Photographer: Vladimir Medvedev

Blakiston’s Fish Owl is the largest owl in the world, but that doesn’t make it easy to find. The endangered bird is a seldom-seen resident of far-east Asia, but several hundred pairs are thought to survive in the species’ epicenter: the old-growth forests of Primorye, a remote region of Russia that borders the Sea of Japan to the east and China and North Korea to its south.
https://www.audubon.org/magazine/searching-elusive-blakistons-fish-owls-ancient-forests-primorye

The largest and rarest owl in the world, the Blakiston’s Eagle Owl (Fishowl), which name was taken from British naturalist Thomas Blakiston, was first documented in 1883. It can grow up to 72 cm long from beak to tail, with a wingspan of up 200 cm. Many of them live in the Far East, on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, and on the Russian islands of Sakhalin and Kuril. Unfortunately, the bird suffers an endangered status. In Japan only 150 Blakiston’s Fish Owls remain. In Russia 1,500 birds.