| Osprey | ||||||||||||||
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||
| Pandion haliaetus |
The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is a medium large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution. It is sometimes known by the misnomers Fish Hawk or Fish Eagle.
It has white underparts and long, narrow wings with four "fingers", which give it a very distinctive appearance.
The Osprey is particularly well adapted to its diet, with reversible outer toes, closable nostrils to keep out water during dives, and backwards facing scales on the talons which act as barbs to help catch fish. It locates its prey from the air, often hovering prior to plunging feet-first into the water to seize a fish. As it rises back into flight the fish is turned head forward to reduce drag.
It breeds by freshwater lakes, and sometimes on coastal brackish waters. The nest is a large heap of sticks built in trees, rocky outcrops, telephone poles or artificial platforms.
European breeders winter in Africa. American and Canadian breeders winter in South America, although some stay in the southernmost USA states such as Florida and California. Australasian Ospreys tend not to migrate.
The osprey is the official bird of Nova Scotia in Canada and Sudermannia in Sweden.
The Osprey differs in several respects from the other diurnal birds of prey, and has always presented something of a riddle to the taxonomist. Here it is treated as the sole member of the family Pandionidae, and the family listed in its traditional place as part of the order Falconiformes. Other schemes place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae—which itself can be regarded as making up the bulk of the order Accipitriformes or else be lumped with the Falconidae into Falconiformes— and others again group it alongside the other raptors in a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes.