Whooper Swan	White-tailed Sea-Eagle	Stellar's Sea-Eagle	Hazel Grouse
Japanese Crane	Far Eastern Curlew	Latham's Snipe	Ross's Gull
Blakiston's Fish-Owl	Ural Owl	Black Woodpecker	Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
Eurasian Skylark	Long-tailed Tit	Snow Bunting	Common Redpoll
Tree Sparrow	Eurasian Jay	Northern Raven	Buller's Shearwater*
Swan Goose*	Ashy Minivet*	To Checklist	To Bird Guide Top

Blakiston's Fish-Owl   Ketupa blakistoni    Shima-fukurou

Blakiston's Fish-Owl is the largest owl in Japan and one of the representative birds of Hokkaido. We often hear stories from people who were driving at night and saw what they thought looked like a child in the road but, when it suddenly flew off, realized it was a Shima-fukurou. These owls were very common back in the days when Hokkaido was a frontier region of Japan. Elderly people related stories of being afraid of them when they were children.

These owls have dwindled sharply in numbers since those days, and now are in danger of extinction. We must not forget that we human beings have been the cause of their decline. One problem that is occurring now in some areas is people trying to get up close to them to photograph them or feed them, but this sort of behavior is in complete violation of wildlife viewing manners.

Hokkaido, 23 November 2001 (Photo: Midorin-san)