[1] Strix ketupu was the scientific name proposed by Thomas Horsfield in 1821 for a buffy fish owl collected in Java.

Unlike fish-eating diurnal raptors, they do not submerge any part of their body while hunting, preferring only to put their feet into the water, although fish owls wade into the shallows.

Similar adaptations, such as unwillingness to submerge beyond their legs and lack of sound-muffling feathers are also seen in the African fishing owls, which do not seem to be directly related.

Due to their neat replacement of each other in range, at one time the tawny and buffy fish owls were considered the same species but there are a number of physical, anatomical, habitat, and behavioral distinctions between them.

[10] The buffy fish owl is distributed from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and the Sunda Islands.

It inhabits tropical forests and freshwater wetlands near rivers, lakes and aquaculture sites up to an elevation of 1,600 m (5,200 ft).

The buffy fish owl is rather noisy before breeding, and pairs may engage in bouts of duetting for several minutes at a time.

[9] Stomach content found in Javan buffy fish owls included insects, winged ants and winged termites, goldfish (Carassius auratus), gold-ringed cat snake (Boiga dendrophila), immature false gharials (Tomistoma schlegelii), red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), black rat (Rattus rattus), and fruit bats.

[10] Eggs of buffy fish owls have mainly been found in February through April in western Java, less commonly into May, and in the Malay Peninsula also in September through January.

This species is generally faring well for a large raptorial bird and has been inadvertently aided by commercial fisheries and ornamental ponds, which they visit by night to hunt.

[10][12] During a seizure in 2008 in a storage facility in Johor, 14 frozen buffy fish owls were discovered that were supposed to be illegally exported to China.

[13] Cambodian Special Forces Command Counter-terrorist Group 14 used buffy fish owl as their insignia.