(bubo blakistoni)
The Blakiston's Fish Owl is the largest owl in the world. It perhaps should be more correctly called the Blakiston's Eagle Owl as it has been moved from the fish owl ketupa genus to the eagle owl bubo genus. Henry Seebohm named this bird after the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen in Hakodate on Hokkaidō, Japan in 1883.
Blakiston's Fish Owl occurs in dense old-growth forest near waterways or wooded coastlines. The species requires cavernous old-growth tree cavities for suitable nest sites and stretches of productive rivers that remain at least partially unfrozen in winter. In the frigid northern winters, open water is found only where the current is sufficiently fast-flowing or there is an upwelling of warm spring water. Slower-moving streams are equally likely to support these owls as the main river channels and they only need a few meters of open water to survive a winter.
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. Blakiston's Fish Owl is revered by the Ainu peoples of Hokkaido, Japan as a Kamuy (divine being) called Kotan koru Kamuy (God that Protects the Village).

The bird in these photos has been habituated to come to captive fish prey in a small pool across the road from the Minshuku Washi-no-yado. However, it can still take many hours of waiting before the bird chooses to appear but at least this can be spent in the warmth of a bedroom rather than in the outdoor sub-zero conditions.