Brown Fish Owl on the rock

[Vijay Rajan]

I sighted this majestic Owl perched on a rock at a waterhole in Ranthambhore last week. Our Gypsy was the first enter that zone on a morning safari with 3 others following close behind on a narrow track. It's a shame the Jeeps behind us were in no mood to stop & look at this bird but were yelling at the top of their voices to us to make way so that they could follow the fresh pug marks of a Tiger. My Driver was kind enough to silence the others & pulled over to enable me make an image of this species within those 10-15 seconds. The bird got disturbed due to the commotion behind us and flew off, deprived of a possible meal. All this for the sake of sighting a Tiger ? That's ridiculous to say the least. How I wish I could have spent some more time studying it's feeding habit !!!

The Brown Fish Owl (Bubo zeylonensis or Ketupa zeylonensis) is an owl and a part of the Strigidae family. It inhabits the warm subtropical and humid tropical parts of continental Asia and some offshore islands. It frequents various types of forests almost always near slow-moving streams & are also in old plantations, groves with mature trees, steep banks and canalsides. It hunts from perch, watching for preys over water, pool or stream. Once the prey is detected, it swoops down with dangling legs above water and catches the prey with the talons. Their toes are equipped with spiny scales on the underside, to grip the slippery fish. Source : Wikipedia.

Shot @ Ranthambhore Tiger Reserve INDIA March 2013.

Canon 7 D
Canon 100 - 400 mm L IS
Aperture Priority @ f/6.3
1/400
EC -1/3
ISO 320
10% crop for compo.
Focal length : 360 mm (I resisted the urge to shoot @ 400 mm to get a closer-up shot & instead pulled back to 360 mm to depict the subject's habitat)

This image is dedicated to one of India's greatest Naturalist's ever, Shri.Madhaviah Krishnan who had documented this species more than half a century back !

My apologies for the long write-up. Many thanks for viewing, C & C please.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Lovely head turn and eye contact. Nice to see it ready to hunt, at the waterhole . Nice display of habitat. Its good you took a moment to stop and photograph this species. Usually I have seen the way people rush for tiger and forget all other equally important species.
Thanks for sharing the detailed information. Look forward to more from Ranathambore.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice image. I like the composition with habitat. I always like preamble as I think,the knowledge percolates through it. It is good that you have dedicated the image to our great teacher.
In our Natural History: Country Notebook column, M. Krishnan's writing on the Fish-Owls (The Sunday Statesman 22-July-2012) has been reproduced. On seeing your image today I read it again.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Prasad Dingankar]

A capture worth waiting..... Its good that you didn't get distracted by the yelling of the people... Thanks for sharing... :001_smile:

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice pic vijay like the compo and eye contact. you seem to have got it out in the open in some good light.

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is nice as it shows us the habitat and tells a story. Too often we try to get that super close up shot without showing the habitat. Without the habitat showing the relationship of the species, it becomes a bit sterile. IF the image has been created with a super-tele just to show the details without cropping, then it serves a purpose. However, that can always be done when the background is uninteresting.

Shri Krishnan is always inspiring and his prose detailed and helps us in visualising. I hope we too can start documenting like him. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi