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Also known as

American osprey, fish eagle, fish hawk, fishing eagle, sea hawk.

What is the scientific name?

Pandion haliaetus

• Pronounced pan-DIE-on hal-ih-ay-EE-tus
• What does it mean? "Pandion's sea eagle." Pandion was the king of Athens in Greek mythology and was poorly chosen as a scientific name for the osprey. Pandion had two daughters, Procne and Philomel. They became caught in an illicit love triangle with Tereus, son of the king of Thrace. This angered the gods and Procne was changed into a swallow, Philomel into a nightingale, and Tereus into a hawk. Tereus was sentenced to forever chase Procne and Philomel. The scientist who gave the osprey its scientific name, Marie-Jules-Cesar Lelorgne de Savigny, somehow associated this story with the osprey simply because it had a hawk in it. The osprey should have been named Tereus, since Pandion was only marginally involved in the story and Tereus was the one transformed into a raptor. But even that would be stretching things since ospreys usually eat fish, not swallows and nightingales.Haliaetus is a Greek word meaning "sea eagle." It is a combination of two other Greek words, halos, meaning "sea" and aetos, meaning "eagle." Note that the bald eagle's genus name is also haliaeetus, but it is spelled with two e's. This was the result of an error in transliteration (changing the Greek alphabet into the English alphabet) by Savigny. Nevertheless, the incorrect spelling of this scientific name is still used for the osprey. Haliaeetus, with two e's, is the "correct" spelling and is used as such with the scientific name for the bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus.
  
  

Where are they located? How many subspecies are there?

The osprey is one of the most widely distributed birds and is found all over the world. There are four subspecies, two in North America and two elsewhere. P. h. carolinensis ranges all over continental North America. P. h. ridgwayi is found in the Bahamas, Cuba, and the Virgin Islands (Palmer 1988a ).

Where do they live?

Usually in cool, temperate areas near fresh or salt water. Found adjacent to lakes, reservoirs, marshes, and rivers (Palmer 1988a ).

What do they look like?

Ospreys are brown above but have white underparts. The head is white with a brown eye stripe and other brown markings on the forehead and crown. Female ospreys can often be distinguished from male ospreys by the presence of a black spotted "necklace" around the females upper breast. However, this feature is consistent only among subspecies located in the United States, P.h. carolinensis (Poole 1989 ).

How big are they?

Females are usually larger, but both sexes are between 17 and 25 inches long and have a wingspread between 54 and 72 inches. Females weigh between 2 to 5 pounds and males between 2 and 4 pounds (Palmer 1988a ; Terres 1980 ).

How fast can they fly?

Between 20 and 80 miles per hour (Broun and Goodwin 1943 ).

How long do they live?

Uncertain. Between 40% to 60% of all newborn ospreys die in their first year. Two of the oldest recorded in captivity were 25 years (Palmer 1988a ) and 23 years (Klimkiewicz and Futcher 1989 ), respectively.

What do they eat?

Ospreys feed almost entirely on live fish, the species of fish is dependent on what is available in the area. It prefers fish that weigh less than one pound and measure between 10 to 14 inches in length (Poole 1989 ). Occasionally they will eat dead fish and only very rarely other animals such as rabbits, rats, ducks, turtles, snakes, and frogs (Palmer 1988a ).

Interesting notes:

Ospreys, as do owls, have a reversible outer toe. While hawks and eagles have feet with three toes forward and one backward, the osprey has the ability to move its outer toe into both a forwards and a backwards position. This allows them to grab and hold onto fish much more easily (Poole 1989 ).

Osprey usually hunt for fish "on the wing," in other words, while flying. They soar over water, sometimes hovering, until they see a fish. Upon locating a potential meal, they tuck their wings back and let the force of gravity pull them towards their prey. They plunge feet first into the water with their wings held up and back, sometimes hitting the water at a speed of 18 to 44 miles per hour and diving as much as three to four feet underwater. With a fish held securely in their talons they pull themselves out of the water with one powerful stroke (Palmer 1988a ; Poole 1989 ). One scientist observed an osprey coming out of the water with two fish, one in each foot! (Cushing 1941 ). As they fly back to their perch they arrange the fish between their feet so that the head faces forward with the body held close. This is thought to cut down on wind resistance while flying (Poole 1989 ).

There are two interesting accounts of ospreys being killed, both by their own mistakes. In one instance, an osprey dove to capture a fish whose size it failed to judge. It grabbed the fish, but somehow couldn't let go once its talons became deeply imbedded. The fish pulled the struggling osprey down into the water and they both disappeared. They were found dead downriver a few days later, the fish still in the clutches of the osprey (Farley 1924 ).

The other story involves an osprey being attacked by smaller birds. In fighting them off, the osprey accidentally pierced its own wing and its talons became stuck. The thrashing bird, now unable to fly, dropped to the water. Two men who had been observing the battle rowed out to the osprey and tried to save it, but it died a short time later from shock and loss of blood (Hughs 1941 ). While ospreys rarely make such miscalculations, both of these stories illustrate how animals sometimes make mistakes.