Fishing owls are a group of birds in the Strigidae family.

Forget the Pel's fishing owl (which, should you need a wilderness fact, can lift its own weight in fish).

It's also known for its birding, including sightings of fish eagles and the rare Pel's fishing owl.

Pel's Fishing Owl is one of the largest owl species in the world.

A fishing owl darted down on the pool on silent wings like a gigantic moth.

The Pel's Fishing Owl is found in forests along rivers and lakes.

The fish owls and fishing owls are:

Strange and rare fishing owls, seeming more like apes than like birds, nested in the tall African ebony trees.

The two related fishing owls are smaller and lack the dark barring and scaling (though they do have dark streaks below).

The rare Pel's Fishing Owl frequents banks above large pools in rivers, best seen at night.

Compared with the fish owls, the three fishing owls are more completely piscivorous and rarely vary their prey selection from fish.

In one case, a Pel's Fishing Owl was observed to predate a baby Nile crocodile.

Unlike the eagle-owls, the ear tufts of the Pel's Fishing Owl are barely visible, giving it a very round-headed appearance.

The song of the male Pel's Fishing Owl is a deep, sonorous, horn-like boom, first a single and then a higher pitched huhuhu.

The Pel's Fishing Owl locally ranges from rare and sporadic to quite common, depending on how locally ideal the environment is.

English naturalist Richard Bowdler Sharpe described the Rufous Fishing Owl in 1871.

Vermiculated Fishing Owl (Scotopelia bouvieri)

Rufous Fishing Owl (Scotopelia ussheri)

Pel's Fishing Owl - Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds.

The Vermiculated Fishing Owl (Scotopelia bouvieri) is a species of owl in the Strigidae family.

Pel's Fishing Owl (Scotopelia peli)

After about a half hour searching the wooded riverbanks, Barrie finds the most spectacular bird of the Okavango Delta: a Pel's fishing owl.

A total of 400 species of birds have been recorded from the park, including Pel's Fishing Owl, Kori bustard, and Tropical Boubou.

However, any other owl encountered, including the very large Pel's Fishing Owl, are potential prey for the Verreaux's Eagle Owl.

Bird species in the area include the Palm-nut Vulture, Pel's Fishing Owl, White-backed Night-heron, and kingfishers.

It is one of three species in the genus Scotopelia.

The owls are placed in their own genus Scotopelia here, but should arguably be merged with Bubo.

Vermiculated Fishing Owl (Scotopelia bouvieri)

The Vermiculated Fishing Owl (Scotopelia bouvieri) is a species of owl in the Strigidae family.

Pel's Fishing Owl (Scotopelia peli)

However, the mtDNA cytochrome b data suggests that in this case, to make Bubo monophyletic the Scotopelia fishing owls would also need to be included there.

Mwea National Reserve also shelters two other rare species; the Pel's Fishing Owl (Scotopelia peli) and the White-backed Night Heron (Gorsachius leuconotus).

Depending on whether some little-studied tropical eagle-owls are closer to the fish-owls than to the typical eagle-owls, Ketupa might be a valid genus if these as well as the fishing owls (formerly Scotopelia) are included in it.