Tawny Fish Owl

The tawny fish owl is one of the heaviest living owls, 48–61 cm long, with six adults averaging about 2,415 g. Like other fish owls it has large ear tufts, but they usually hang to the sides of the head, distinctly messy and tousled, and it has yellow eyes. The scapulars are a dingy yellow forming a contrasting band across the shoulders. Its feet have a rough texture under the toes that helps it grasp slippery fish (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lives in subtropical to temperate forest in southern Nepal, northern India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Laos, Myanmar, Taiwan and Vietnam, in the Himalayan foothills from Kashmir and Garhwal east. Unlike many fish-eating diurnal raptors it does not submerge any part of its body when hunting, putting only its feet into the water, though fish owls sometimes wade into the shallows. The breeding season is November to February in India and December to February in Assam, and usually two eggs are laid. SoIB 2023 lists it as a resident forest bird that eats vertebrates and carrion, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).