Ketupa flavipes
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
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 →
Recording0:29
Taiwan · 2022
© Jhih-Wei Tsai · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Royal Manas National Park | 🇧🇹 Bhutan |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Taipei Zoo | 🇹🇼 Taiwan |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny Fish-Owl sighting in Royal Manas National Park on a given day, based on 31 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 278th most-seen of the 388 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
March
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Tawny Fish-Owl in Royal Manas National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–July and October–February, the lowest months. That is one of Royal Manas National Park's driest months, with about 120 mm of rain against 930 mm in July. August and September have too few records to rate.
Between 3 and 6 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Tawny Fish-Owl sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
2nd of 2
Of the 2 parks where we can rate Tawny Fish-Owl sightings, Royal Manas National Park ranks 2nd at under 5%. The best odds are in Jim Corbett National Park (India, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Tawny Fish-Owl is recorded against all the birds logged in Royal Manas National Park (31 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
