During my annual Hokkaido birding wildlife workshop tours, I usually visit a bird hide at one of my favorite four-five star lodgings, to spot the Blakiston’s Fish Owl (Ketupa blakistoni,) especially near dusk or dawn, the two times of day when they are most actively hunting their prey.  One may think that the largest living species of owl would be easy to spot considering males weigh from 3 to 3.5 kg (6.5 to 8 lb) and females weigh between 3 to 4.5 kg (6.5 to 10 lb), approximately 25% larger then the males.  And their total length is between 60 to 72 cm (24 to 28 in), slightly lower than that of the Great Gray Owl, but the Blakiston’s has a much higher overall body mass.  Their distribution spans the far east of Russia, northeastern China, and, of course, where I encounter them, Hokkaido, Japan.  Henry Seebohm named this bird after the English naturalist Thomas Blakiston, who collected the original specimen in Hakodate on Hokkaido, Japan in 1883.  There are four subspecies of the Blakiston’s Fish Owl, but only two are scientifically recognized, B. b. blakistoni, which is the species I spot and photograph during my annual Hokkaido birding photo workshop, and B. b. doerriesi which is considered the ‘mainland’ species of the Blakiston’s Fish Owl.  Unfortunately, the number of Blakiston’s Fish Owls has been decreasing in recent years due to deforestation and human encroachment on the mixed forests near unfrozen rivers that the Blakiston’s Fish Owls favor for nesting.  Due to some of the mainland subspecies being distributed across North Korea, an exact number of the population is difficult to ascertain, but the IUCN places the overall numbers between 1,500 - 4,000, and about 150 of them reside on Japan’s north island.