The Blakiston's Fish Owl

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

Flaying Animal | The Blakiston's Fish Owl | Massive owl with long, broad, horizontal ear-tufts. Pale grey-brown facial disc. Buff-brown, broadly streaked upperparts. Buff and dark brown barred wings. Pale tail with dark bars. White throat. Pale buffish-brown underparts with long streaks. Orange-yellow iris. Blakiston's Fish Owl, Bubo blakistoni, is a fish owl, a sub-group of eagle owls who specialized in hunting riparian areas. This species is a part of the family known as typical owls, Strigidae, which contains most species of owl. Surveys suggest that the fish owl population in the southern Russian Far East (encompassing all of Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsky Krai south from the Amur River) is approximately 100-130 pairs. With extrapolation to the entire fish owl range, the population could be more than 800 pairs. Recent surveys estimate one pair of Blakiston's fish owls every 3.8 river km along the Samarga River in northern Primorye, possibly the highest natural concentration of this species globally. Concentrations of breeding pairs in suitable habitat are generally described as one pair every 6-12 river km.

Reproduction

Blakiston's fish owls can form pair bonds as early as their second year, and reach sexual maturity by age 3. Pairs do not breed every year. Courtship occurs from January-February, with a clutch of one or two eggs laid in March. Young fledge up to 50 days post-hatching. Data on breeding success are scant: on Kunashir Island during a 6-year period breeding success was 24%; with six fledglings resulting from 25 eggs. Juveniles remain on their natal territory into their second year, apparently dispersing as late as July the following year.

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

Breeding and Status

This bird does not breed every year due to fluctuations in food supply and conditions. Laying of eggs begins as early as mid-March, when ground and trees are still covered with snow. These owls prefer nesting in hollow tree cavities in Japan (Takenaka 1998) and Russia (Slaght and Sumrach 2008). Reports of nesting on fallen tree trunks and on the forest floor are very rare occurrences at best, but possibly untrue. Other than nest cavities, there are very isolated records of nesting on cliff shelves and in old black kite nests (Takenaka 1998, Yamamoto 1999). Nest cavities have to be quite large in order to accommodate these birds. Clutch size is 1 to 3, usually 2 (Yamamoto 1999). In Russia, clutches are usually just one egg (Slaght and Surmach 2008). Eggs are 6.2 cm (2.5 in) long and 4.9 cm (1.9 in) wide. The males provide food for the incubating female and later the nestlings. The incubation period is about 35 days and young leave the nest within 35–40 days but are often fed and cared for by their parents for several more months.

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

Importance in Indigenous Cultures
Blakiston's fish owl is revered by the Ainu peoples of Hokkaido, Japan as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan koru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village). In Russia, the species is currently considered a food source by the Evens people in northern Siberia and the northern Russian Far East.

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

Prey
The fish owl prey base is quite diverse, but even in winter, small fish are a primary target. In addition to fish, Blakiston's fish owls also prey on a variety of waterfowl species, small mammals, and amphibians. Reliance on certain prey species is seasonal: for example, in spring, frogs are particularly important and taken in great abundance.

The Blakiston's Fish Owl

Read More »

The Great Horned Owl

The Great Horned Owl

Flaying Animal | The Great Horned Owl | Great Horned Owls can vary in colour from a reddish brown to a grey or black and white. The underside is a light grey with dark bars and a white band of feathers on the upper breast. They have large, staring yellow-orange eyes, bordered in most races by an orange-buff facial disc. The name is derived from tufts of feathers that appear to be "horns" which are sometimes referred to as "ear tufts" but have nothing to do with hearing at all. The large feet are feathered to the ends of the toes, and the immature birds resemble the adults. Females are 10 to 20% larger than males.

Great Horned Owls range in length from 18–27 in (46–69 cm) and have a wingspan of 40-60.5 in (101–153 cm); Females are larger than males, an average adult being 22 in (55 cm) long with a 49 in (124 cm) wingspan and weighing about 3.1 lbs (1400 g). Depending on subspecies, Great Horned Owls can weigh from 0.72 to 2.55 kg (1.6 to 5.6 lb).

Their call is a low-pitched but loud ho-ho-hoo hoo hoo; sometimes it is only four syllables instead of five. The female's call is higher and rises in pitch at the end of the call. Young owls make hissing or screeching sounds that are often confused with the calls of Barn Owls. Great Horned Owls can be easily confused with the Magellanic Horned Owl (B. magellanicus) and other eagle-owls. They are all generally allopatric though.

The Great Horned Owl

Habits

Activity generally begins at dusk, but in some regions, may be seen in late afternoon or early morning. Both sexes may be very aggressive towards intruders when nesting.

The Great Horned Owl

Hunting & Food
Great Horned Owls hunt by perching on snags and poles and watching for prey, or by gliding slowly above the ground. From high perches they dive down to the ground with wings folded, before snatching prey. Prey are usually killed instantly when grasped by its large talons. They also hunt by walking on the ground to capture small prey or wading into water to snatch frogs and fish. They have been known to walk into chicken coops to take domestic fowl. Rodents and small rabbits can be swallowed whole while larger prey are carried off and ripped apart at feeding perches or at the nest. Birds are often plucked first, and legs and wing tips discarded. 

The Great Horned Owl

Distribution and ecology

The breeding habitat of the Great Horned Owl extends from subarctic North America through much of Central America and South America south to Tierra del Fuego. They are absent from southern Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua to Panama in Central, and Amazonia and the southwest in South America, as well as from the West Indies and indeed most off-shore islands.

Great Horned Owl eggs, nestlings and fledgings may be preyed on by foxes, coyotes, or wild or feral cats. There are almost no predators of adults, but they may be killed in confrontations with eagles, Snowy Owls and, mostly, other Great Horned Owls. Far-ranging as it is, it is not considered a globally threatened species by the IUCN.

The Great Horned Owl

Mortality
A long-lived Owl, captive birds have been known to live 29 to 38 years, and wild Owls up to 13 years. Most mortality is related to man - shootings, traps, road kills and electrocutions. The only natural enemies are other Great Horned Owls and, occasionally, Northern Goshawks during disputes over nest sites. Peregrine Falcons have also been observed attacking Great Horned Owls.

The Great Horned Owl

Habitat
Great Horned Owls have adapted to many different places and climates. They occur in habitats from dense forests, deserts and plains to city parks. They have been known to inhabit the same area as the diurnal red-tailed hawk.

The Great Horned Owl

Distribution
Great Horned Owls are found throughout North America from the northern treeline and then in Central and South America. They are resident year-round, however, birds living in the northern part of the species' range may migrate south.

The Great Horned Owl

Perhaps what this bird is an owl of the most aggressive and powerful than other owls, these birds have been recorded to kill red-tailed hawks and owls gray even great, and no doubt doubt have killed a large eagle.

Read More »

The Snowy Owl

The Snowy Owl

 

Flaying Animal | The Snowy Owl | The ghostlike snowy owl has unmistakable white plumage that echoes its Arctic origins. The Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) is a large owl of the typical owl family Strigidae. The Snowy Owl was first classified in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist who developed binomial nomenclature to classify and organize plants and animals. The bird is also known in North America as the Arctic Owl, Great White Owl or Harfang.

Identification:
Height: Up to 27 in. - it is one of the biggest owls.
Wingspan: 45-60 in.

Color: In the summer, snowy owls are brownish with dark spots and stripes. In the winter, they are completely white.

The Snowy Owl

Distinguishing Characteristics
All white color, ability to hunt silently, hunts during the day unlike most owls.

The Snowy Owl

Breeding
8-10 eggs, eggs are laid on the ground or on hummocks because there aren't trees in the Arctic.

The Snowy Owl

Habitat

The Snowy Owl is a bird of Arctic tundra or open grasslands and fields. They rarely venture into forested areas. During southward movements they appear along lakeshores, marine coastlines, marshes, and even roost on buildings in cities and towns. In the Arctic, they normally roost on pingaluks (rises in the tundra) and breed from low valley floors up to mountain slopes and plateaus over 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) in elevation. When wintering in the Arctic, they frequent wind-swept tundra with little snow or ice accumulation. At more southern latitudes they typically frequents agricultural areas.

The Snowy Owl

Range

Snowy Owls nest in the Arctic tundra of the northermost stretches of Alaska, Canada and Eurasia. They winter south through Canada and northern Eurasia, with irruptions occurring further south in some years. Snowy Owls are attracted to open areas like coastal dunes and prairies that appear somewhat similar to tundra. They have been reported as far south as Texas, Georgia, the American Gulf states, southern Russia, northern China and even the Caribbean. Between 1967 and 1975, Snowy Owls bred on the remote island of Fetlar in the Shetland Isles north of Scotland, UK. Females summered as recently as 1993, but their status in the British Isles is now that of a rare winter visitor to Shetland, the Outer Hebrides and the Cairngorms. In January 2009, a Snowy Owl appeared in Spring Hill, Tennessee, the first reported sighting in the state since 1987.

The Snowy Owl

Natural Threats

Though Snowy Owls have few predators, the adults are very watchful and are equipped to defend against any kind of threat towards them or their offspring. During the nesting season, the owls regularly defend their nests against arctic foxes, corvids and swift-flying jaegers; as well as dogs, gray wolves and other avian predators. Males defend the nest by standing guard nearby while the female incubates the eggs and broods the young. Both sexes attack approaching predators, dive-bombing them and engaging in distraction displays to draw the predator away from a nest. They also compete directly for lemmings and other prey with several predators, including rough-legged hawks, golden eagles, peregrine falcons, gyrfalcons, jaegers, glaucous gulls, short-eared owls, great horned owls, common ravens, wolves, arctic foxes, and ermine. Some species nesting near snowy owl nests, such as the snow goose, seem to benefit from the protection of snowy owls that drive competing predators out of the area.

The Snowy Owl

Favorite Food

Owls live mostly off lemmings. If there are a lot of lemmings the owl population increases. But if the lemming population is down during the winter the owls leave the Arctic are in search of food. Some people think that the owls die if there is only a little food but really a lot of them fly south searching for food. They come back when the food becomes more abundant.

Voice
The Snowy Owl is virtually silent during nonbreeding seasons. The typical call of the male is a loud, harsh, grating bark, while the female has a similar higher pitched call. During the breeding season males have a loud, booming "hoo, hoo" given as a territorial advertisement or mating call. Females rarely hoot. Its attack call is a guttural "krufff-guh-guh-guk". When excited it may emit a loud "hooo-uh, hooo-uh, hooo-uh, wuh-wuh-wuh". Other sounds are dog-like barks, rattling cackles, shrieks, hissing, and bill-snapping. Nestlings "cheep" up to 2 weeks of age, then hiss and squeal.

The Snowy Owl

These magnificent owls sometimes remain year-round in their northern breeding grounds, but they are frequent migrants to Canada, the northern United States, Europe, and Asia. Lemming availability may determine the extent of southern migration, when owls take up summer residence on open fields, marshes, and beaches.

Read More »

The Great Grey Owl

The Great Grey Owl

Flaying Animal | The Great Grey Owl | This is the largest bird of the owl, but very light weight, similar to the Wedge-Tailed Eagle Australia. Great horned owls are adaptable birds and live from the Arctic to South America. They are at home in suburbia as well as in woods and farmlands. Northern populations migrate in winter, but most live permanently in more temperate climes.

Adults have a big, rounded head with a gray face and yellow eyes with darker circles around them. The underparts are light with dark streaks; the upper parts are gray with pale bars. This owl does not have ear tufts and has the largest facial disc of any raptor.

The Great Grey Owl

Breeding
They breed in North America from as far east as Quebec to the Pacific coast and Alaska, and from Finland and Estonia across northern Asia. They are permanent residents, but may move south and southeast when food is scarce. A small population, estimated at less than 100 birds, occurs in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. This population is the southernmost population of the species' range and is listed Endangered under California's Endangered Species Act.

Habitat
The harvest of timber from the Great Grey Owl's habitat is, perhaps, the greatest threat to this species. Intensified timber management typically reduces live and dead large-diameter trees used for nesting, leaning trees used by juveniles for roosting before they can fly, and dense canopy closures in stands used by juveniles for cover and protection. If perches are not left in clearcuts, Great Grey Owls cannot readily hunt in them. Although human-made structures (made specifically for use by this species) have been utilized by these owls, the species is far more common in areas protected from logging.[citation needed] Livestock grazing in meadows also adversely affects Great Grey Owls, by reducing habitat for preferred prey species.

The Great Grey Owl

Size

Length 61-84cm (24-33") average 72cm (28") for females, 69cm (27") for males
Wingspan up to 152cm (60") average 142cm (56") for female, 140cm (55") for males
Weight 790-1454g (28-51oz) average 1,390g (49oz) for females, 1,290g (45.5oz) for males.

The Great Grey Owl

Habits

Great Gray Owls fly with soft, slow wingbeats and generally do not often move more than short distances between perches and seldom glides. They fly close to the ground, usually less than 6 metres (20 feet) up, except when flying to a nest. May be very aggressive near the nest. The Great Gray Owl thermoregulates by roosting in dense cover. When hot, a Great Gray Owl will pant and droop its wings to expose an unfeathered area under the wing.

The Great Grey Owl

Read More »

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

Flaying Animal | The Eurasia Eagle Owl |  The upperparts are brown-black and tawny-buff, showing as dense freckling on the forehead and crown, stripes on the nape, sides and back of the neck, and dark splotches on the pale ground colour of the back, mantle and scapulars. A narrow buff band, freckled with brown buff, runs up from the base of the bill, above the inner part of the eye and along the inner edge of the black-brown, "ear-tufts". The Eagle Owl has a wingspan of 138–200 cm (55–79 in) and measures 58–75 cm (23–30 in) long. Females weigh 1.75-4.5 kg (3.9-10 lbs) and males weigh 1.5-3.2 kg (3.3-7 lbs).

Like the Great Horned Owl, it also has ear tufts. These are neither tufts nor horns, but feathers that the owl is able to control. It could be guessed that it is the owl’s mechanism for making it appear more menacing and also to break up the outline of the head for camouflaging purposes.

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

Habitat and natural range: 

The Eurasian Eagle Owl is an old world owl found in all parts of Europe and the Middle east as well as on the African continent. It is a very hardy owl able to breed in the arid Sahara and Arabian deserts, the jungles of equatorial Africa, as well as in the northern reaches of Siberia. When possible the Eagle Owl prefers to nest near woodlands, with level land and tree lined waterways.

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

Breeding: 

The Male and Female duet during courtship, the Male advertising potential breeding sites by scratching a shallow depression at the site and emitting staccato notes and clucking sounds. Favoured nest sites are sheltered cliff ledges, crevices between rocks and cave entrances in cliffs. They will also use abandoned nests of other large birds. If no such sites are available, they may nest on the ground between rocks, under fallen trunks, under a bush, or even at the base of a tree trunk. No nesting material is added. Often several potential depressions are offered to the female, who selects one; this is quite often used again in subsequent years. Very often pairs for life. They are territorial, but territories of neighbouring pairs may partly overlap.

This bird is often referred to as the largest of the owl. This owl is very strong, and capable of killing the largest eagle, there are few cases of those who attack and kill the golden eagle which is almost mature.

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

The Eurasia Eagle Owl

Read More »

Copsychus interpositus

Copsychus interpositus

Flaying Animal | Copsychus interpositus | One of the melodious sound of birds in the world. Race stricklandii (together with barbouri) commonly treated as a separate species, but intergrades with suavis over a zone of almost 300 km wide.

Copsychus interpositus

Copsychus interpositus

Copsychus interpositus

Distinctive insular races albiventris putatively worthy of species status; detailed analysis needed. Additional races described based on minor differences and small sample sizes: indicus (Nepal E to N Indochina), pellogynus (SE Myanmar, Peninsular Thailand) and minor (Hainan I) regarded as Synonyms of interpositus; mallopercnus (W. Malaysia), javanus (W Java & C), omissus (E Java), eumesus (Natuna Is) and ochroptilus (Anamba Is) as Synonyms of tricolor; and opisthopelus (Stone Is) and opisthisus (Much Is) as Synonyms of melanurus. It seems a rather Improbable characters of macrourus That Will PROVE constant, in the which case this name would apply to all Populations currently placed in interpositus.

Copsychus interpositus

Read More »

Black shama

Copsychus cebuensis

Flaying Animal | Copsychus cebuensis | Black shama | The black shama is a medium-sized bird with entirely black plumage. The male has a dark bluish sheen to its plumage, whilst the female is a little more blackish grey, and smaller than the male. The tail is long and graduated, the bill is black and the eyes are dark brown. Juveniles are greyer with browner wings . The black shama’s song is a rich, varied series of melodious whistles, and it is also known to mimic the sounds of other birds

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist shrubland, and plantations.It has been sighted in several locations all across the island, the most important sites being the Central Cebu Protected Landscape, the forests of Alcoy and Argao, and the shrublands of Casili, Consolacion. It is threatened by habitat loss.

Copsychus cebuensis

Biology – Black shama
The black shama is an unobtrusive bird, often heard before it is seen, probably due to its inconspicuous appearance and its preference for skulking in the dense understorey of forest. The breeding season extends from February to September, when two to three eggs are laid in cup-shaped nests, often found placed in the sawed or broken ends of bamboo stalks. The only information known about this secretive bird’s diet comes from the contents of a female’s stomach, which contained small, black beetles.

Copsychus cebuensis

Ecology  It inhabits primary forest and the dense undergrowth of secondary habitats, including scrub and cut-over forests, plantations, and bamboo groves.

Copsychus cebuensis

Kingdom    Animalia
Phylum      Chordata
Class         Aves
Order        Passeriformes
Family       Muscicapidae
Genus        Copsychus

Size    Length: 20 cm

Copsychus cebuensis

Habitat
Inhabits forest and dense thickets, bamboo groves, scrub, deforested land and plantations.

Copsychus cebuensis

Copsychus cebuensis

Trend justification 

Rapid population declines are suspected to be on-going as the area of remaining habitat suitable for this species is tiny, and continues to suffer from degradation and clearance.

Copsychus cebuensis

Read More »

White-vented Shama

White-vented Shama

Flaying Animal | White-vented Shama | Copsychus niger  | The White-vented Shama (Copsychus niger) is a species of bird in the Muscicapidae family. It is endemic to the Philippines. Population justification The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is described as uncommon, although perhaps locally common. Trend justification The population is suspected to be in decline owing to ongoing habitat destruction.

White-vented Shama

White-vented Shama

White-vented Shama

Other synonyms
Czech: šáma černá, Šama cerný
Danish: Sort Shama, Sort Shamadrossel
German: Cebuschama, Mohrendajal
English: Black Shama, Palawan Black-Shama, Palawan Shama, White vented Shama, White-vented Shama
Spanish: Mirlo Shama Negro, Shama de Palawan
Finnish: Mustaharakkarastas, mustaharakkatasku
French: Dyal à ventre blanc, Shama noir
Italian: Shama culbianco
Japanese: kuroshikichou
Japanese: クロシキチョウ
Latin: Copsychus niger, Copsychus niger niger
Dutch: Zwarte Dayallijster
Norwegian: Palawanshama
Polish: sroczek filipinski, sroczek filipiński
Russian: Белобрюхий шама-дрозд
Slovak: šáma tmavá
Swedish: Palawanshama
Chinese: 白臀鹊鸲 

White-vented Shama

Read More »