Truly shocked to come across a new original picture of a. BFO! 😮

This must have been such a special opportunity for the photographer.

From Jonathan Wadsworth

Blakiston’s Fish Owl, the largest owl in the world.

Settings: 800mm, 1/80s, f/6.3, ISO 8000

This photo was taken at a licensed observatory in Hokkaido, where a special pulsing LED light provides both birdwatchers and scientists a place to observe the owls without disturbing them or seeking them out in their sensitive nesting areas.

Unfortunately, they are critically endangered, relying on mature boreal forest near clean-flowing rivers, habitat that is drastically disappearing. In Hokkaido, conservation has been successful so far, with the population increasing from only 70 birds in the 1980s to at least 160 now. It’s still a perilously small population however.

    • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
      11·
      10 hours ago

      They are very big and badass! I always hear they’re the size of a fire hydrant, but I just check and apparently not every country uses hydrants so I can’t use that.

      Not alive, but full wingspan compared to an adult human

      • brbpostingEnglish
        2·
        6 hours ago

        hear they’re the size of a fire hydrant, but I just check and apparently not every country uses hydrants

        <3

        Delightful!

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          3·
          6 hours ago

          One never knows what new facts they will learn here!

          Australia:

          England:

          Germany:

          US:

          Of course there are many variations in each country and some even have them completely underground!

          For a better comparison, the BFO should be about 4 bananas long. 😇

          • festnt
            2·
            5 hours ago

            there are so many variations of banana though

            • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
              2·
              5 hours ago

              I replaced one useless comparison with another as a joke, but then I went back and realized it doesn’t have the real info in the post. I feel it’s still hard to picture jthem ust from measurements, especially as the owls don’t really look the size and weight they are. Here’s the real details though!

              From Hokaido Photo Tours:

              The Blakiston’s Fish Owl is the largest owl species on our planet. Males weigh from 2.95 to 3.6 kg (6.5 to 8 lb), while the female weighs up to 2.95 to 4.6 kg (6.5 to 10.1 lb), about 25% larger. The Blakiston’s Fish Owl measures 60 to 72 cm (24 to 28 in) in total length. The Eurasian eagle-owl is sometimes thought to be the largest owl species and is a close match in size to the Blakiston’s fish owl, but to date, all recorded measurements of the two put the Blakiston’s Fish Owl as the overall largest owl species.

          • brbpostingEnglish
            2·
            5 hours ago

            What are these English blokes doing with their funny little design?

            Thanks for sharing those!

        • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
          2·
          8 hours ago

          I just added another comment in the main thread with a photo of an Ainu owl ceremony. The BFO is the god who guards the village and is very important to their beliefs.

  • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
    5·
    8 hours ago

    Sacred ceremony for the spirits of owls

    Until several hundreds of years ago, the Ainu practiced iyomante, a ceremony to send the spirits of gods back to the divine realm. Of these ceremonies, those to send back the spirits of Blakiston’s fish owls, which were referred to as kotankorkamuy or mosirkorkamuy (the god of the village), were the most formal ritual occasions in Ainu culture. Records show that people sent back the spirits of the owls they hunted in ceremonies that went on for several days.

      • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
        3·
        7 hours ago

        Lol didn’t mean to scare you!

        The closest we’ve had to that was the Cuban Giant Owl from the Late Pleistocene period (126,000 to 11,700 years ago). Wikipedia tells me humands didn’t come to Cuba until around 4000 BC so we neither got to eat or get eaten by these giant owls.