Status
The Blakiston's Fish Owl is endangered due to the widespread loss of riverine forest, increasing development along rivers and dam construction. The current population in Japan is approximately 100-150 birds (20 breeding pairs and unpaired individuals), whereas on mainland Asia the population is higher, variously estimated at several hundred or perhaps thousands of individuals (Slaght and Surmach 2008). In Russia, fish owls are killed by fur-trappers (see above), drown in nets set for salmon, and are shot by hunters (Slaght and Surmach 2008). In Japan, death by hunting is unlikely, but fish owls have been hit by cars and killed by powerlines (Yanagawa 1993). Local conservation efforts in Japan have been undertaken including education and installation of large nest-boxes.
Henry Seebohm named this bird after the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen in Hakodate on HokkaidÅ, Japan in 1883.
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