Animals /
Birds Living

Osprey

Pandion haliaetus

The osprey (; Pandion haliaetus), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and a wingspan of 180 cm (71 in). It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.

Overview

The osprey (; Pandion haliaetus), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than 60 cm (24 in) in length and a wingspan of 180 cm (71 in). It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts.
The osprey is distributed on all continents except Antarctica, but in South America, it occurs only as a nonbreeding migrant. It lives in a wide variety of habitats and nests in locations near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It has specialised physical characteristics and unique behaviour in hunting its prey, which consists almost exclusively of fish.

Habitat & distribution

Habitats

FreshwaterBrackish WaterTerrestrialMarine

Video

Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) with fish.Credit: Marc Plomp · CC BY-SA 3.0 nlSource ↗

Sounds

Call of the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain

References

  1. GBIF Auto Sync GBIF
  2. WoRMS / Aphia World Register of Marine Species
  3. Wikipedia — Osprey Wikipedia

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