Osprey is a large fish-eating bird of prey with long, narrow wings and a white underside and crown, found throughout the world. The bird is also connected to all aspects of Solar Worship and comes into your life to emphasize the value and healing power of the sun.
The bird is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm in length and 180 cm across the wings. It has brown color on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts. It belongs to the Animalia kingdom, and it is also known as the sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk.
Osprey
The Osprey stands for a wide variety of habitats, it has a habit of nesting in any environment near a body of water providing it an adequate food supply.
The bird is found on all the continents except Antarctica, while in South America it occurs only as a non-breathing migrant bird. The osprey changes in several respects from other diurnal birds of prey. The toes are of equal length, its tarsi are reticulate. And its talons are rounded, rather than grooved.
The bird toe is reversible, this helps them when they grab slippery fish. The Roman writer reported that parent ospreys made their young fly up to the sun as a test, and dispatched any that failed.
How Does Osprey Look Like? | Best Description of Osprey
The Osprey upper parts are deep, glossy brown, while the breast is white and sometimes streaked with brown. While the underpart of the bird is pure white.
The bird head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, alongside the neck. The irises of the eyes are golden to brown, and the transparent nictitating membrane is pale blue. The feet are white with black talons.
It has a short tail and long narrow wings with four long finger-like feathers. In-flight, the osprey has arched wings and drooping hands giving it a gull-like appearance. The bird has male and female gender.
Osprey Bird Habitat
The osprey is the second most widely distributed raptor species. it is found in summer throughout Europe north into Ireland, Scandinavia, Finland, and Great British though not Iceland, and winters in North Africa.
The Osprey stands for a wide variety of habitats, it has a habit of nesting in any environment near a body of water providing it an adequate food supply.
The bird is found near water, either fresh or salt, where large numbers of fish are present. It is regular around large lakes, reservoirs, rivers. Migrating Ospreys are sometimes seen far from water, even over the desert.
Does Osprey Eat Other Birds
Do Ospreys eat other birds? A lot of people asked. It mainly feed on live fish of a wide variety of species, the type of prey they catch is quite diverse. Like snakes, birds, frogs, reptiles, mammals and other invertebrates can all fall prey to the deft, sharp talons of an osprey.
Osprey is not particular about what fish species they eat and will generally eat what is most easily accessible. On rare occasions, Ospreys have also been known to prey on rodents, rabbits, hares, other birds, and small amphibians and reptiles.
They do feed on other birds. However, they chase birds that encroach on their nests.
Osprey Bird Diet | Osprey Bird Prey
The Osprey bird is basically fed on fish with making up 99% of its diet. The bird has a vision that is well adapted to detaching underwater objects from the air.
Prey is the first sighted when the osprey is above the water, which the birds hover momentarily then plunge feet first into the water. They catch fish by diving into the water body, most time completely submerging their full bodies.
On some occasions, the Osprey may prey on Rodents, Rabbits, hares, and other birds, and small reptiles.
Osprey Bird Size
It has an average wingspan of five feet like 1.5 meters, it is one of the larger birds of prey, but smaller than a bald eagle.
They are 21 to 23 inches long and usually weigh between three to four pounds 1.3 to 1.8 kilograms. The female is larger than the male bird.
Osprey Bird Nest
It constructs its nests in the tops of dead trees, atop power poles, on man-made nesting platforms, and sometimes on buoys, chimneys, or other structures.
The nests are most often used year after year and can become up to 10 feet high as more nesting materials are added each breeding season.
The osprey nests are built like sticks and lined with bark, sod, grasses, vines, algae, or flotsam and jetsam.
The male is usually fetched most of the nesting material like sometimes breaking dead sticks off nearby trees as he files past while the female arranges it.
How Long do Osprey Lives
Most of the juvenile birds die before they got to three years old. The oldest wild osprey was 32 years old. Those breeding age can expect to live on average about eight years.
The raptors are known to live for about 15 to 20 years. Nearly half of the young birds can die within the first year.
