Dietary biology of the Eurasian eagle-owl
In the Iberian peninsula, the Eurasian eagle-owl is part of a complex guild of predators that have evolved to survive mostly on European rabbits. Among this guild, golden eagles ("Aquila chrysaetos") were recorded per one study to rely on rabbits for 40% of the diet, the eagle-owl for 49% of the diet, the Spanish imperial eagle ("Aquila adalberti") for 50% of the diet, the Bonelli's eagle ("Aquila fasciata") for 61% of the diet and the Iberian lynx ("Lynx pardinus") for 79% of the diet. Elsewhere, the Spanish imperial eagle and eagle-owl are considered to outflank the golden and even the Bonelli's eagle as the most specialized avian predator of rabbits in the Iberian region. Other predators, such as common buzzard ("Buteo buteo"), northern goshawk ("Accipiter gentilis") black kite ("Milvus migrans") Iberian wildcat ("Felis silvestris tartessia"), red fox, stone marten ("Martes foina") and introduced Egyptian mongoose also prey heavily on rabbits in Spain, but are more generalized and less reliant than the above predators. All these powerful predators do not generally compete directly for food but conflicts may ensue over the rights to territories and nesting sites amongst the birds. Being nocturnal in activity, however, the Eurasian eagle-owl does not tend to compete as directly as do the three eagle species and even these are discreetly segregated by habitat preferences, the goldens preferring open, steep cliffs, the Bonelli's favoring densely vegetated areas mixed with rocky spots and the imperial favoring relatively flat open woodlands. Among these eagles, the golden eagle tends to have the most similar habitat preferences to the Eurasian eagle-owl and across a broad band of overlapping distribution, the two are considered nearly ecological equivalents by day and night. However, good-sized female golden eagles are up to twice as heavy as an average eagle-owl, so seem to have a considerable advantage in size and power. Conversely, to support their large size and large territory needs, the golden eagle cannot survive on small and diverse prey nearly as successfully as the eagle-owl. Among the Iberian peninsula rabbit-eating guild, the species with wider ranges, the eagle-owl and the golden and Bonelli's eagles, have had some degree of success living off of alternate prey following the devastation of the rabbit population due to rabbit haemorrhagic disease. The two rabbit predators endemic to Iberia, the Iberian lynx and Spanish imperial eagle, have been devastated by the reduction and other causes and both are threatened species today.
Blakiston's fish owl
Blakiston's fish owl is the largest living species of owl. A pair field study of the species showed males weighing from , while the female, at up to , is about 25% larger. Around February, the average weight of Russian fish owls was in males and in females, typically when their body mass at its lowest throughout the year. Blakiston's fish owl measures in total length, and thus measures slightly less at average and maximum length than the great gray owl ("Strix nebulosa"), a species which has a significantly lower body mass. The Eurasian eagle-owl ("B. bubo") is sometimes considered the largest overall living owl species. The three largest races of eagle-owl, all found in Siberia and the Russian Far East, are close in size to the Blakiston's fish owl. According to Heimo Mikkola, the very largest specimen of eagle-owl was longer in bill-to-tail length than the longest Blakiston's fish owl, while the top weight of the two species is exactly the same. The longest great gray owl was longer than the biggest Blakiston's fish owl but would be about 2.5 times lighter than the weight of the largest female Blakiston's. However, the average measurements of Blakiston's fish owl surpass the average measurements of the Eurasian eagle-owl in the three major categories: weight, length, and wingspan, making Blakiston's the overall largest species of owl. Even the large Siberian races of eagle-owl are slightly smaller on average than the Blakiston's, at least in terms of body mass and wing size. The maximum wingspan of the Blakiston's fish owl is also greater than any known eagle-owl. The wingspan range known for Blakiston's fish owls is . It is possible the largest specimens can attain a wingspan of approximately . The Blakiston's is noticeably larger than the other three extant species of fish owl.