Pandion haliaetus

• Identification Tips:
• Length: 22 inches Wingspan: 54 inches
• Large, narrow-winged hawk
• Flies on flat wings with distinct kink at elbow
• Wings taper to a rounded tip
• Short hooked beak
•  White cap
•  Dark brown eyeline broadening behind eye
• Dark brown nape, back and upperwings
•  Wings from below: flight feathers white barred with black, undersecondary coverts white and underprimary coverts black producing rectangular black mark at wrist
• White chin, throat, breast and belly
•  Brown tail has a number of white bands
• Hovers and then plunges into water after fish
• Cool Facts:
•  The Osprey readily builds its nest on manmade structures, such as telephone poles, channel markers, duck blinds, and nest platforms designed especially for it.
• Such platforms have become an important tool in reestablishing Ospreys in areas where they had disappeared.
• In some areas nests are placed almost exclusively on artificial structures.
• Osprey eggs do not hatch all at once, but instead the first chick hatches out up to five days before the last one.
• The older chick dominates its younger siblings, and can monopolize the food brought by the parents.
• If food is abundant, little aggression is seen amongst the chicks, but if food is limited, the younger chicks often starve.
• The Osprey is a fish-eating specialist, with live fish accounting for about 99% of its diet.
• Barbed pads on the soles of its feet help it grip slippery fish.
• When an Osprey takes a large fish to its nest, it carries the fish headfirst to make it as aerodynamic as possible.