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Ospreys are the sole representatives of their family, Pandionidae. Pandion haliaetus, or the osprey, is sometimes
called the 'Fish Hawk'. They are fish eaters and can be found near lakes and other water worldwide. When they see a fish
they will either hover untill the fish comes close enough to the suface for the osprey to grab, or they will plunge into
the water to kill and take the fish. So when hunting, the most common way to hunt is soaring over the water, but they will
also hunt from a perch too. They are almost eagle-sized, having a wingspan up to six feet (1.8 meters). They weigh
around 2-2.5 pounds, and are 21-26 inches long. When flying, they hold their wings in an M shape with the primary
feathers separated, like most diurnal raptors. They nest on many structures and are often highly visible, in fact they
may even nest an man-made sturctures such as power lines and artificial nesting platforms. They usualy nest over
water, and will repair old and damaged nests. They use almost anything available to build nests. They lay 1-5 eggs, usually
3 that are incubated by both sexes for 34-40 days. Young birds fledge at 48-59 days of age, and are dependent on
the parents' care for another 4-8 weeks. Osprey start to breed at around 3 years of age. After the Osprey declined in
numbers because of DDT pesticedes, man-made nesting poles were build to help rebuild their numbers. Ospreys have made a tremendous
comeback after they became endangered because of DDT. Power companies are now making bird-safe power lines
to make them safer not only for the Osprey, but for other large raptors like Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos), that
perch and nest there too. Electrocution happens when a bird touches a line with one wing and touches another line with th
other wing, making a path for the electricity to follow and making the bird part of the circuit. That means that raptors with
larger wingspans are more likely to be electrocuted because their wing easily reach neighborins lines.
Osprey are the only zygodactylic diurnal raptors, and have small tubercules on the bottom of their feet
to grasp prey. I like writing about the Osprey and Secretary Birds on this site because I can show you the scientific
classification. The Osprey's scientific classification would be as is shown below,
Kingdom: Animalia
Phyla: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Falconiformes
Family: Pandionidae
Genus: Pandion
Species: P. haliaetus
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Osprey nest. In this picture you can see just how large and easy to see osprey nests are.
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Here you can see the shallow 'M' shape with which osprey fly.
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