Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Osprey

Pandion haliaetus

Description:

Unique among North American raptors for its diet of live fish and ability to dive into water to catch them, Ospreys are common sights soaring over shorelines, patrolling waterways, and standing on their huge stick nests, white heads gleaming. These large, rangy hawks do well around humans and have rebounded in numbers following the ban on the pesticide DDT. Hunting Ospreys are a picture of concentration, diving with feet outstretched and yellow eyes sighting straight along their talons. Ospreys are very large, distinctively shaped hawks. Despite their size, their bodies are slender, with long, narrow wings and long legs. Ospreys fly with a marked kink in their wings, making an M-shape when seen from below. Ospreys are brown above and white below, and overall they are whiter than most raptors. From below, the wings are mostly white with a prominent dark patch at the wrists. The head is white with a broad brown stripe through the eye. Juveniles have white spots on the back and buffy shading on the breast.

Habitat:

Look for Ospreys around nearly any body of water: salt marshes, rivers, ponds, reservoirs, estuaries, and even coral reefs. Their conspicuous stick nests are placed in the open on poles, channel markers, and dead trees, often over water.

Notes:

Ospreys search for fish by flying on steady wingbeats and bowed wings or circling high in the sky over relatively shallow water. They often hover briefly before diving, feet first, to grab a fish. You can often clearly see an Osprey's catch in its talons as the bird carries it back to a nest or perch.

Species ID Suggestions



Sign in to suggest organism ID

6 Comments

RickBohler
RickBohler 10 years ago

Thanks Landmark ...... Oh, love your profile pic. :)

Caleb Steindel
Caleb Steindel 10 years ago

no. 3 is intimidating!

RickBohler
RickBohler 10 years ago

Thanks Mona :)

Mona Pirih
Mona Pirih 10 years ago

Stunning photographs...

RickBohler
RickBohler 10 years ago

Thanks Mac

MacChristiansen
MacChristiansen 10 years ago

Nice series Rick

RickBohler
Spotted by
RickBohler

Jacksonville, Florida, USA

Spotted on May 25, 2013
Submitted on May 25, 2013

Related Spottings

Osprey Aguila pescadora Osprey Osprey

Nearby Spottings

Black Skimmer Reddish Egret ? Cannonball Jellyfish
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team