Tawny Fish-Owl

About the Tawny Fish-Owl

The tawny fish owl (Ketupa flavipes) is a fish owl species in the family known as typical owls, Strigidae. It is native from southern Nepal to Bangladesh, Vietnam and China and Bhutan. Due to its wide geographical distribution, it is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

Cultrunguis flavipes was the scientific name proposed by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1836 who described a yellow-footed fish owl from Nepal. Ketupa was proposed as generic name by René-Primevère Lesson in 1831 for fish owl species from Java and India.

Results of a phylogenetic analysis of nine horned owl species indicate that Ketupa species form a monophyletic group. Like other fish owls, the tawny fish owl has large ear tufts but they usually hang to the sides of the head and are distinctly messy and tousled looking. They have yellow eyes. Tawny fish owls have been described as the most "attractive" of the fish owls. They tend to be an orangey-rufous color on the crown and upperparts, which are overlaid with broad, blackish markings on the central part of the feathers and spots of the same color as the reddish-brown feather edges. The scapulars are a dingy yellow color, forming... Wikipedia →