Common Brown Fish Owl

I had a nice surprise the other day as I posted an owl I'd photographed on iNaturalist and the first computerized suggestion was brown fish owl, an owl I'd never heard of. I looked it up on Wikipedia and Birds of the World and determined it was a brown fish owl and posted it. It was a new "lifer" for me, the first time in my life I'd ever seen one. I was thrilled when Brenna Farrell, the number one identifier of brown fish owls on iNaturalist (by a 6.5 to 1 margin) and probably the number one identifier of all owls on iNaturalist, confirmed it. We saw it on our fifth and last safari in Ranthambore, in zone 5, our second time in that zone. My notes from that day do not indicate what kind of owl our guide said it was, and he may not have said. 

I took lots of photos, but the owl never moved, so they are all the same. 

There are four subspecies and we saw ssp. leschenaulti, found in India through Myanmar to west Thailand. and known as the common brown fish owl, distinguishing it from the other three ssp. Birds of the World has two illustrations, but not leschenaulti. I picked the illustration of ssp. zeylonensis, the Sri Lankan brown fish owl, found in Sri Lanka, which looked closer to leschenaulti than the other illustration. Leschenaulti is a little larger and lighter than zeylonensis. 

I've also included the range map from Birds of the World. 

Wikipedia states, "The brown fish owl has prominent ear tufts and rufous brown upperparts that are heavily streaked with black or dark brown. Its underparts are buffy-fulvous to whitish, with wavy dark brown streaks and finer brown barring. Its throat is white and conspicuously puffed. Its facial disk is indistinct, the bill dark and the iris golden yellow. Its featherless feet are yellow. Two-year old brown fish owls are somewhat paler than adults. Female and male differ slightly in size." The feather pattern on the wing and the chest are what sold me on it. 

As the name suggests, it does include fish in its diet, something I've never heard of owls eating. 

Indian Ruddy Mongoose

I previously did a post on the Sri Lankan ruddy mongoose (post on July 2, 2019), subspecies zeylanius, which is endemic to Sri Lanka. At the time there were two ssp. However, there are now three ssp. recognized. The other two are ssp. smithi, the Indian ruddy mongoose, the nominate, which is found in the hill forest and peninsular regions of India and ssp. thysanurus, the Kashmir ruddy mongoose, found in Kashmir and northern India. 

I was recently in Ranthambore NP, in Rajasthan, which is 130 km (81 miles) southeast of Jaipur, in northern India, but in a hilly forest region. I don't find anything which delineates the physical differences between smithi and thysanurus or where the line of demarcation is. AI says that Ranthambore has smithi, but it is very likely going to a source that predates the addition of thysanurus as a ssp. But either way, it is still a different ssp. than zeylanius. 

Following are my photos of the one smithi I saw in Zone 1 of Ranthambore NP in November 2025. 

   

Bengal Tiger - Noori

I previously did a post on seeing my second Bengal tiger (post on December 12, 2025) in Ranthambore National Park. In that post I discussed events leading up to our trip to India as well as leading up to seeing our first (this) tiger. I was with my brother-in-law, Stan, and this was our fourth safari (we had one more before going home). The other four in our group opted out of our afternoon safari to visit Ranthambore Fort. That was nice as there were two of us sharing seats normally filled by six of us. Much of our safari was waiting, as numerous deer were barking, a sign that a tiger is nearby. We shuttled back and forth up and down a fairly steep canyon, with vehicles our size as well as much larger canter vehicles that seat 20 passengers jockeyed for position and passed each other. Our guide would talk with guides in other vehicles and assess the best place for us to see the tiger and we spent about an hour and a half just sitting, waiting, and shuttling back and forth. Finally, on what I believe was our third tip down the steep hill we leveled out and vehicles were leaving, I thought they'd given up. However, people in the vehicles were waiving wildly back the way they'd come and our driver quickly barged in among the vehicles waiting at the edge of a hill near a large tree. Our guide pointed behind a tree to a beautiful tiger resting near some rocks. 

I believe she'd been there awhile and some of the other vehicles had had their fill. Also, it was getting close to the time we need to leave to get out of the park on time. Our guide indicated that we were seeing Noori (her scientific name is T-105). She was born in 2016 in a litter of three or four cubs to Noor (whose scientific name was T-39). Her father was Singhasth (whose scientific name is T-57). Her mother and her siblings (T-106 and T-107, Sultana) are no longer alive. But it appears that Singhasth, her father, still co-exists with her. Noori is now nine years old and had a litter of three cubs in 2021. She is normally seen in Zone 2, but we were seeing her in Zone 1.

Noori eventually stood up, walked up the hill a short ways, then turned and walked in our direction, just above our Jeep about 15 yards, walking perpendicular to us. This gave us our best views and was a real thrill. 

For this last photo, above, our guide and driver were ahead of us in the Jeep and blocking part of our view. I had to crop our driver out of this photo just to the left of Noori. Noori walked up the hill, just a little bit, then meandered down the hill and sat down in some bushes near another tree for awhile. Our guide re-located our Jeep closer to her. She got up and walked a short distance and laid down again. 

We were running into time problems with our need to get out of the park on time, plus Noori was being pretty boring, just laying in the grass. I've shown 21 photos, but I took 167. So lots has been edited out. My other brother-in-law, Dave, had made a comment that we were likely to see a tiger with the decision of the four of them not to come on this drive, and he was right. Stan and I were feeling a little bad and did not want to make a big deal of it. Fortunately, we had the second tiger sighting the next morning that everyone saw and that settled those anxieties. 

Tigers are amazingly spectacular, beautiful and powerful animals. I'm hard-pressed to name an animal I've seen that has had as much preparation, anticipation and thrill associated with viewing it. 

White-Browed Fantail

The white-browed fantail gets part of its name (the "white-browed" portion) from a thick white supercilium. The second part of its name comes from the tail which can "fan out" much like a turkey tail. The two outer tailfeathers are all white, the four central tailfeathers are all brown (or almost all brown), and the other tailfeathers are a mixture of white and brown (white toward the tip and brown toward the base). There are three subspecies. We saw the nominate subspecies, aureola, in Zone 4 of Ranthambore NP in northern India, southwest of Jaipur. 

This was one of the few new "lifer" birds I saw in Ranthambore which was a disappointment for me. I'd expected a lot more bird species. The white-browed fantail is a fascinating and beautiful bird which was quite active while we watched it.  

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

Range from Birds of the World. 

Common Goldeneye

I've seen the common goldeneye (a duck) twice previously. First was near the Causeway on Antelope Island in Utah on November 23 and 25, 2019. I saw lots of both males and females. Second was a male only on January 17, 2022 on a small private reservoir in Mentone, California, not far from where we live. On Friday, January 2, 2026 I'd scouted out several places on eBird hotspots ahead of time and noted common goldeneyes at Bolsa Chica, among other birds - I'd forgotten I'd seen them previously. As I looked at my itinerary New Years evening, I looked up iNaturalist and noted I'd seen the common goldeneye previously, but only twice, and decided Bolsa Chica was still a good place to visit for other reasons as well, in addition to a desire to see the common goldeneye again. Several photos are below, plus illustrations from Birds of the World and a range map from Birds of the World. 

Both are females. Note one has a mostly black bill, one has a yellow tip on the bill and some can have a mostly yellowish bill. Note the illustration below has a partially yellow bill on the female. Note that the first bird, above, has a third eyelid, a nictating membrane, partially covering the eye which does not show up on the other photos. It can be drawn across the eye to protect and moisten it.  

Illustration of a female.

Illustration of a male. 

Like the surf scoter I posted on yesterday, the common goldeneye breeds in the north and winters in the south, although the range of the common goldeneye is much larger, including the winter range which is limited to the coasts (for the surf scoter) only. 

Surf Scoter

I did a previous post on the surf scoter (published on March 27, 2023). It notes that I saw my first surf scoter at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in January 2022 and saw more in March 2023 on a birding trip with Island Packers Cruises near Anacapa Island in Channel Islands National Park. On Friday, January 2, 2026 I was at Bolsa Chica again and got my best views of surf scoters so far. There were multiple males and females, they were near shore, and I saw courtship activity among them, including males racing and splashing, lowering their necks and heads in the water and raising their bills upwards in a comical and fun display of testosterone. I feel it is truly a privilege to view these birds. Look at the range map below. These are birds of the far north, many of them from the Arctic Circle. This post is mostly about sharing my better photos and also showing illustrations and a range map from Birds of the World. 

This photo best shows the black "hole" or mark at the beginning of the bill. This photo reveals that it is not a hole, as it sometimes appears, but may even be somewhat raised. 

This photo emphasizes the amazing color of the bill, much like a clown face, or a joker face, with zombie white eyes. 

For whatever reason, this reminds me of a bleating lamb, based on the view of it as a lamb skull. This is my favorite photo. 

Some more sense of color, with the red legs and color of the bill reflected in the water. 

My best photo of a female. They are not as photogenic and there were fewer of them. 

The best view of the white hind-neck. 

Note the halo reflecting in the water. 

The courtship ritual. Testosterone driven males start to go a bit whacky. 

Some very loud splashing going on along with verbal outpourings of emotion. 

Note both males with their back tails standing up in the air, the only photo I have like it. The one is staring down the female with his bill lowered and goo-goo eyes. If it had on glasses, they would be lower down on his bill and his eyes would be staring over them. 

It is hard to get a sense of whether this female enjoys the attention or feels trapped. Maybe both. 

Female

Male