The call is a series of sharp whistles, cheep, cheep, or yewk, yewk.
In flight, Ospreys have arched wings and drooping "hands", giving them a diagnostic gull-like appearance. It is straightforward to sex a breeding pair, but harder with individual birds. They also have a weaker or non-existent breast band than the female, and more uniformly pale underwing coverts. Adult males can be distinguished from females from their slimmer bodies and narrower wings. By spring, wear on the upperparts makes barring on the underwings and flight feathers a better indicator of young birds. Juvenile birds are readily identified by the buff fringes to the upperpart plumage, buff tone to the underparts, and streaked crown. Its short tail and long, narrow wings with four long "finger" feathers (and a shorter fifth) give it a very distinctive appearance. It has mainly white underparts and head, apart from a dark mask through the eye, and fairly uniformly brown upperparts. It is often known by other colloquial names such as fishhawk, seahawk or Fish Eagle.Īn unusual bird with no close relatives, it is the only living species of the genus Pandion, which is in turn the only genus in the bird family Pandionidae.
It occurs in all continents except Antarctica, but in South America only as a non-breeding migrant. The Osprey ( Pandion haliaetus) is a medium large raptor which is a specialist fish-eater with a worldwide distribution.