Brown fish owl – a uniquely ear-tufted day owl

This master bird of prey has many unique features that you can’t miss – an ‘indistinct’ facial disk, bushy & tousled ear-tufts and semi-diurnal roosting in large trees during the day time. Of the four living species of fish owl, it is the most widely distributed, most common and best-studied. It is known to occupy a range of over 7,000 kms all the way from eastern China to Palestine.

The brown fish owl species have moderate forest dependency, they would inhabit artificial ecosystems like plantations and rural gardens through natural ecosystems of tropical and subtropical dry forests, deciduous and semi-deciduous forests, tropical and subtropical moist lowland forests, open evergreen forests, freshwater marshes, well-vegetated ravines, rivers, steep river banks, streamside forests and creeks.

I have had a long standing history with this mighty bird. Though this was one of the first large Owl species for me, may be around five years ago; I have somehow been unlucky in getting a satisfactory image. More so because, they prefer tree canopies to roost, sit in the open mostly during cloudy days and pretty sensitive to our movements.

Brown fish owl’s call is deep, rapid, hollow “HU WHO-hu”, here is a call recording from XENO-CANTO source..

Finally, I managed to create this image in Kabini forest (Nagarhole National Park) in Karnataka, India. What you see here is a typical habitat shot of this majestic creature, please bear with the quality of the image which was created under an overcast sky and low light.