Osprey-a perfect angler bird

Osprey

         Introduction of Osprey

      The osprey (Scientific name : Pandion  haliaetus)  also called sea hawk, river hawk or fish hawk is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It belongs to the Order Accipitriformes and Family is Pandionidae. The name "Osprey" made its first appearance around 1460, via the Medieval Latin phrase for "bird of prey" (avis prede). Some wordsmiths trace the name even further back, to the Latin for "bone-breaker"—ossifragus. Ospreys are excellent anglers. Ospreys caught fish on at least 1 in every 4 dives, with success rates sometimes as high as 70 percent.

             How to identify osprey

    Ospreys are very large, distinctively shaped hawks. Their bodies are slender, with long, narrow wings and long legs. Osprey has chocolate-brown upper part  and  it's lower part is pure white . 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. The osprey has long, pale green legs and grappling-hook talons for catching fish. Fierce yellow eyes are ringed in black.  Pupils are black which dilate from 2.5 mm to 5 mm wide. Tail is  gray in color and banded it has a ragged crest. Osprey’s outer toe is fully reversible, making it ideal for grabbing and holding on to a slippery fish. Females have streaked upper breasts and are larger than males. Juveniles have white spots on the back and buffy shading on the breast.
    Ospreys are large birds of prey with sharp, hooked beaks, and long talons. Their wingspan can reach nearly 6 ft. across. Length is 54-58 cm and their weight 1400-2000 g. Their feathers are brown, white, black, and grey.
     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.
    They can easily be recognized in flight by their mottled wings, and five long wingtip feathers.  Ospreys fly with a marked kink in their wings, making an M-shape when seen from below. Males and females are quite similar in appearance, and can only be distinguished by a few minor differences.  Ospreys have binocular vision that means their eyes are sufficiently close together to enable them to see as human do.
 

              Habits and Habitat

   Natural habitat of Osprey includes almost any expanse of shallow, fish-filled water, including rivers, lakes, reservoirs, lagoons, swamps, and marshes.  Osprey always chose a place as habitat which has  an adequate supply of accessible fish within a maximum of about 12 miles of the nest.
               Food
    Most of this bird’s diet consists of fish. In fact, a usual diet is made up of 99% fish species. Their eyes are specially adapted to identifying underwater fish while they are flying in the air. When they aren’t fishing they will take the occasional small mammal, bird, insect, reptile, or amphibian.
    The Osprey is the only hawk  that eats almost exclusively live fish. On very rare occasions, Ospreys have been observed feeding on fish carcasses or on birds, snakes, squirrels. Ospreys probably get most of the water they need from the flesh of their prey, although there are reports of adults drinking on hot days.
            Call
    When disturbed, ospreys give a series of high, piercing, chicklike peeps and thin screams. Ospreys are very vocal, giving a loud, clear, high-pitched whistle—tyou-tyou-tyou-tyou—that sounds like they are giggling.

         Breeding and Nesting

     Osprey is  usually monogamous, but they have been recorded breeding with more than one mate. This raptor build a nest with sticks or branches. Their nest are large in size and  build on channel markers, dead trees, and artificial nesting platforms along water bodies. Nesting pairs add sticks yearly until the nests assume enormous proportions. Inside the nest, they use grasses to make it soft.
   Having established their nest in the first season, sometimes using an abandoned nest and ‘redeveloping’ it, adult pairs return every March or April to the same nest to breed. A pair of ospreys mate for life and every year will add to and develop their nest. It is possible to see a well-established nest 6 feet in diameter and up to 13 feet deep.
    Female usually lays two to four eggs. Eggs are 2.2-2.7 inch or 5.5-6.8 cm long and width is 1.6-2.0 inch. or 4.2-5 cm. Color of eggs ranges from Cream to pinkish cinnamon. It is  wreathed and spotted with reddish brown. Both male and female  incubate the egg for around 37 days. The male provides all the female’s food during this time. Osprey eggs do not hatch all at once. Rather, the first chick emerges up to five days before the last one. The older hatchling dominates its younger siblings, and can monopolize the food brought by the parents. If food is abundant, chicks share meals in relative harmony. In times of scarcity, younger ones may starve to death.Osprey chicks can fledge as early as eight weeks old. Chicks achieve sexual maturity at three or four years of age.