- Ketupa zeylonensis
Identification
48–58 cm (19-22¾ in)
- Rufous brown upperparts, streaked black
- Pale underparts streaked and barred brown
- White throat
- Yellow iris
Distribution
Photo by Seyed Babak Mus
Near to Gaz river in Hormozgan Province, Iran, Spring 2004
Widespread from Pakistan and India east to China and south to Malaysia.
Extremely rare in the Western Palearctic. A small populaton was recently rediscovered in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey. May still occur in Jordan in the Yarmuk and northern Jordan Valleys but probably now extinct in the Golan Heights of Syria where not recorded in recent years. Formerly bred in northern Israel and also recorded in southern Iraq.
Recorded in Lebanon.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
There are 4 subspecies[1]:
- K. z. semenowi:
- K. z. leschenaulti:
- K. z. zeylonensis:
- K. z. orientalis:
- North-eastern Myanmar to south-eastern China, Malay Peninsula, Indochina and Hainan
A recent study suggests that K. z. semenowi should be studied further because it may be a full species[3].
Habitat
Lakes, rivers and streams with tree-lined margins, wadis with shrubs in the Golan Heights.
Behaviour
Diet
The diet consists of frogs, crayfish, crabs, fish, mammals, birds and reptiles.
Breeding
They use old nests made from sticks, or they nest on ledges. The 1 or 2 eggs are incubated for 38 days; the young fledge after about 7 weeks.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019. The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- World Owl Trust
- Birdforum thread discussing the taxonomy of Brown Fish Owl
- Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved August 2016)
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2021) Brown Fish Owl. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 27 January 2021 from https://www.birdforum.net/wiki/Brown_Fish_Owl
External Links
