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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—Tom Brokaw (b. 1940)
“I weathered some merry snow-storms, and spent some cheerful winter evenings by my fireside, while the snow whirled wildly without, and even the hooting of the owl was hushed. For many weeks I met no one in my walks but those who came occasionally to cut wood and sled it to the village.... For human society I was obliged to conjure up the former occupants of these woods.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)