Osprey 

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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.