When we talk of the osprey, we are talking of a large raptor whose size goes beyond 60cm, 24inches long and 180 cm wide (across its wings). The osprey bird is brown in color (its upper part) and greyish (head and the under part). The osprey finds comfort in nesting near water bodies in order to be able to get food easily and adequately.
Ospreys belong to the hawk family, and is commonly known as the western osprey or river hawk / pandion haliaetus / fish hawk / sea hawk. It is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. The osprey can stay in almost all environments, however it likes being near water bodies, and can be traced in all continents across the globe except Antarctica. It appears only as a non-breeding migrant in South America.
Diet of the osprey.
The osprey traced its common name, fish hawk from the food it predominantly depends on. Like any other bird blessed naturally with survival features, the osprey possesses special physical characteristics and exhibits special behavior that render it enough support in hunting and catching fish. Its unique features have earned it a status of an independent taxonomic genus (pandion), family (pandionidae) and full species status known as the eastern osprey.
Characteristics of Osprey include the following;
- The osprey has a unique shaped small brown body. It is also a white raptor with narrow angles.
- The osprey has small white head, white crown, and broad black band through the yellow eyes. It is pearly white below and dark brown above.
- It is hard to differentiate osprey depending on sex due to the fact that they are almost the same; however, female ospreys have full chest bands.
- A white color below with striking long angled wings and a distinctive black carpal patches, primary tips and dark edges to the under wing coverts appear as the osprey is flying.
- Most of the times, ospreys are seen single hovering with dangling legs plunging into water for fish.
- Ospreys are seasonal birds much as some of them are visible around water bodies throughout the year.
- They are silent birds to the extent that you will never hear any sound even when they are present in any region.
Descriptive features of osprey birds.
The osprey has deep glossy brown upper parts whereas the breast is predominantly white sometimes streaked with a brown color. Their under parts are purely white and their head is white, with a dark mask across the eyes reaching as far as the sides of the neck.
An osprey has transparent nictitating membrane which is pale blue and the irises of its eyes are golden brown in color. It also has a black bill with a blue cere as well as white feet with black talons. It has got narrow wings with 4 finger-like feathers plus the 5th which is shorter; these characterize its unique appearance. The osprey’s tail is somewhat short.
It is rather not easy to differentiate between female and male ospreys; however, the adult male has a slimmer body with narrower wings in addition to weaker breast band compared to that of females, this is sometimes non-existent at all and its under wing coverts are uniformly pale in color. It can be easy to differentiate between the two sexes in breeding pairs but rather harder to do so with individual birds.
Buff tone to the underparts, streaked feathers on their head and buff fringes to the plumage of the upperparts, are some of the distinctive features of juvenile ospreys. Young ospreys develop barring on the under wings as well as flight feathers during spring, something that can easily identify them from adults.
Do osprey birds exist in Uganda?
The question of whether osprey birds exist in Uganda can only be answered if you pay a visit to areas that host migratory birds such as Lake Victoria (specifically Mabamba wetlands), Lutembe Bay (near Kampala city), etc. These birds are migratory in nature and can be seen around fresh water lakes, rivers and salt water lakes. They normally visit Uganda in the months of April to August.
