It is more correct to call this species the Blakiston's eagle owl. This is because it is more closely related to the Eurasian eagle-owl (by studies of the main subgenus of the species, "B. b. dumeril"), than to the subgenus of fish owls that it was believed to be more close to, i.e. "Ketupa". This was proven by osteological (skeleton/bone-related) and DNA-based tests in 2003 by ornithologists/taxonomists Michael Wink and Claus König, author of "Owls of the World". However, the other fish owls are not believed by some authors to be divergent enough to support a separate genus either and so some authorities list fish owls as also included in the genus "Bubo".