We’re regularly checking “our” Ospreys that have returned this month to their usual spring-summer nest nearby.
We’ll give you status reports from time to time, and perhaps an interesting fact or two gleaned from our research. As you can see from the images here, taken yesterday, our “Fish Eagles” are in great shape.
The Osprey’s wings are the bird’s most distinctive feature, we think. They’re very big compared to the bird’s body. Each of those wings can range in size from five to almost six feet in length; yet, their skinny body usually is less than two feet in length and the whole bird usually does not weigh more than four pounds.
Osprey wings are oil-coated to repel water, extraordinarily strong to soar and change directions in high winds, and unusually designed to power dive on prey. The wings are bent at the “wrist,” which gives them greater maneuverability than eagles and other large raptors. Ospreys are the only raptors than can fold their wings halfway and flutter in one place like a helicopter when targeting a fish below the surface.
They’re also the only raptor that tips over when “helicopting” and dives headfirst at amazing speed into the water to catch prey, which may be several feet below the surface. They then swim back up to the surface with those bent wings and rocket out of the water with a relatively heavy fish in a tight grasp.
(Brooklin, Maine)