Eurasian eagle-owl
The Eurasian eagle-owl ("Bubo bubo") is a species of eagle-owl that resides in much of Eurasia. It is also called the European eagle-owl and in Europe, it is occasionally abbreviated to just eagle-owl. It is one of the largest species of owl, and females can grow to a total length of 75 cm (30 in), with a wingspan of 188 cm (6 ft 2 in), males being slightly smaller. This bird has distinctive ear tufts, with upper parts that are mottled with darker blackish colouring and tawny. The wings and tail are barred. The underparts are a variably hued buff, streaked with darker colour. The facial disc is poorly developed and the orange eyes are distinctive.
Eurasian eagle-owl
Long-eared owls in Eurasia have vertical striping like that of the Eurasian eagle-owl while long-eared owls in North America show a more horizontal striping like that of great horned owls. Whether these are examples of mimicry either way is unclear but it is known that both "Bubo" owls are serious predators of long-eared owls. The same discrepancy in underside streaking has also been noted in the Eurasian and American representations of the grey owl. A few other related species overlap minimally in range in Asia, mainly in east Asia and the southern reaches of the Eurasian eagle-owl’s range. Three fish owls appear to overlap in range, the brown ("Ketupa zeylonensis") in at least northern Pakistan, probably Kashmir and discontinuously in southern Turkey, the tawny ("K. flavipes") through much of eastern China and the Blakiston's fish owl in the Russian Far East, northeastern China and Hokkaido. Fish owls are distinctively different looking, possessing more scraggy ear tufts that hang to the side rather than sit erect on top of the head, generally have more uniform, brownish plumages without the contrasting darker streaking of an eagle-owl. The brown fish owl has no feathering on the tarsus or feet and the tawny has feathering only on the upper portion of the tarsi but the Blakiston’s is nearly as extensively feathered on the tarsi and feet as the eagle-owl. Tawny and brown fish owls are both slightly smaller than co-occurring Eurasian eagle-owls and Blakiston’s fish owls are similar or slightly larger than co-occurring large northern eagle-owls. Fish owls, being tied to the edges of freshwater where they hunt mainly fish and crabs, also have slightly differing, and more narrow, habitat preferences.