This bird lives on fish so is commonly found near water. Its nest is composed of sticks, seaweed, and grasses. Instead of feathers, its legs are covered with scales.

Osprey

This bird lives on fish so is commonly found near water. Its nest is composed of sticks, seaweed, and…

This bird lives on fish so is commonly found near water. Its nest is composed of sticks, seaweed, and grasses. Instead of feathers, its legs are covered with scales.

Osprey

This bird lives on fish so is commonly found near water. Its nest is composed of sticks, seaweed, and…

An osprey, perched on a rock with a freshly caught fish pinned under one foot.

Osprey

An osprey, perched on a rock with a freshly caught fish pinned under one foot.

"The Osprey, the fish hawk, bald buzzard, or fishing eagle. A bird of prey, of almost world wide distribution usually near the seashore, and, unlike rapacious birds generally, are in some measure gregarious. In North America large communities of ospreys are found, and the purple grakle often builds close by. The osprey lays three or four eggs of a rich red to buffy white, with large reddish and brown markings."—(Charles Leonard-Stuart, 1911)

Osprey

"The Osprey, the fish hawk, bald buzzard, or fishing eagle. A bird of prey, of almost world wide distribution…

The osprey is a diurnal bird of prey.

Osprey

The osprey is a diurnal bird of prey.

An Osprey catching a fish. "Pandion haliaetus. Fish Hawk. Osprey. Adult. dark vandyke- brown, blackening on the quills, the feathers of the upper parts more or less completely edged with white - the older the bird, the more conspicuous the white markings. Tail dark brown with dusky bars, white tip and shafts, and inner webs of all but the middle pair of feathers regularly barred with white and dark. Head, neck, and under parts white, the crown more or less extensively streaked with blackish, and a heavy blackish postocular stripe to the nape; the breast more or less spotted with dusky brown; the white more or less tinged with tawny in some places, especially under the wings and on the head. Coloration very variable in the relative amounts of the dark and white colors; young darker, the upper parts without the white crescents. Bill blackish, bluing at base and on cere; feet grayish-blue; claws black; iris yellow or red." Elliot Coues, 1884

Osprey

An Osprey catching a fish. "Pandion haliaetus. Fish Hawk. Osprey. Adult. dark vandyke- brown, blackening…

Illustration of the head of an osprey, a larger bird of prey.

Head of an Osprey

Illustration of the head of an osprey, a larger bird of prey.