Voice
Very deep, echoing duet: male, a deep 'boo-boo', followed immediately by female's even more sonorous signle 'bu'. This duet is repeated in short or long series at about one minute intervals.
Blakiston's Fish Owl (Bubo blakistoni) [XC805130]
by Phil Gregory from \u3061\u3068\u3089\u3044 (near Rausu), Menashi District, Hokkaido, Japan (call, duet)
Blakiston's Fish Owl (Bubo blakistoni) [XC211138]
by Peter Boesman from Washi-no-Yado, Rausu-ch\u014d, Hokkaid\u014d, Japan (call)
Subspecies
Has been treated as forming superspecies with, or even conspecific with, Brown Fish-owl (Ketupa zeylonensis).
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
piscivorus Meise, 1933 - Western Manchuria (west of Great Khingan Mountains).
doerriesi Seebohm, 1895 - South-eastern Siberia and extreme north-eastern China, to Korean border.
karafutonis Kuroda, 1931 - Sakhalin I.
blakistoni (Seebohm, 1884) - Hokkaido and southern Kuril Is.