The Rufous Fishing Owl, Chouette D'Ussher, Chouette-pêcheuse Rousse, Búho Pescador Rojizo, or Cárabo Pescador Rojizo (Scotopelia ussheri) is a species of owl in the Strigidae family. It is found in Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests. It is threatened by habitat loss. It was formerly classified as Endangered by the IUCN. But new research show that is not as rare as it was believed. Consequently, it was downlisted to Vulnerable on the 2011 Red List Of Threatened Species.
English naturalist Richard Bowdler Sharpe described the Rufous Fishing Owl in 1871. It is one of three species in the genus Scotopelia.
It measures 46 to 51 cm in length, and has bare legs and feet.
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman,
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—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)