OSPREY - THIS WEEK

Osprey are 21 - 24 inches wide.  A large long-winged "fish hawk".  Brown above and white below, head white with dark line through eye and on side of face.  Wing shows distinctive bend at the "wrist".  At a distance, can resemble a gull.  Voice is loud, musical chirping.  Nesting: 2 - 4 white, pink or buff eggs, blotched with brown, in a bulky mass of sticks and debris placed in a tree, on a telephone pole, on rocks, or on flat ground.

Osprey search for fish by flying and hovering over the water, watching the surface below.  When prey is sighted, an Osprey dives steeply, its talons outspread, and splashes into the water.  It quickly resurfaces and, if it has made a catch, flies off, adjusting the fish in its claws so that the head is pointed forward.  Ospreys declined drastically because of pesticides during the 1950's and 1960's, but since then they have made a comeback and are nesting again in areas from which they had disappeared.

Information from my National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds book.