Courtesy of Arkive, we have this magnificent video of an osprey fishing. There is only one species of osprey (Pandion haliaetus), and it’s found on every continent save Antarctica. It’s also the only species in its genus, and the only species in the family Pandionidae.
They eat fish almost exclusively There are three vignettes in the following video, and lots to see, including their amazing abilities to spot fish from high in the air, to immerse themselves completely in water while hunting, to catch fish almost larger than they can carry, and to take off from the water’s surface. Notice, in one instance, how the osprey shakes itself free of water while flying with a fish. Notice, too, that the osprey in the last segment holds a fish with a single talon.
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h/t: Donald
One word: wow!
The thing that I find most interesting, however, isn’t this graceful predator and its amazing fishing skills, but that it’s a one-species, one-genus, one-family critter: the mountain beaver of birds, in a way.
The lack of other species or even genera in its family suggests that its a traveler, so that the isolation necessary for further speciation has not prevailed anywhere in its global range for a long time.
What, if anything, is known about the evolution of this taxon?
Pandionids have a pretty spotty fossil record, but go back to the Oligocene. In molecular phylogenies they usually come out either as the sister to the Accipitridae (hawks, eagles and kites), or as sister to the Falconidae (though that group is notoriously volatile)
Interestingly there is another distinctive and monotypic family, Sagittariidae, the secretary bird, that has a fossil record going back about as far and occupies a similar place, often as sister to Pandion + Accipitridae. There might be some long-branch issues here?
Pandion phylogeography is interesting. Wink et al. (2004) argued that the genetic divergence among subspecies was “in the range of good species” and argued for splitting the genus into four species: two migratory species that breed in North America and Eurasia and winter in the tropics, and a resident species in the Neotropics and Australasia. This hasn’t really seemed to catch on. There are only subtle differences in coloration and body size among these populations but they seem to have been reproductively isolated for some time despite having overlapping non-breeding ranges.
I was going to comment on the same thing.
It’s interesting how we can see divergence in a single species of bird within the United States (so that they are divided into subspecies, for example), but the Osprey ranges over a much larger area, and certainly, genes from all of these populations cannot be flowing into every other population – and yet we do not see divergence.
I’ve been lucky to watch ospreys hunt quite a bit (usually while wading after turtle traps*). They are incredible and beautiful.
*although the last catch I saw was in the lagoon next to the shorefront park where Railroad Earth was playing…I had been watching it hover and finally dive, and then everybody–including the band–saw it fly right across the front of the stage with a huge fish in its talons. Almost magical.
Truly amazing footage, but rather chilling too: grace, beauty, power and violence, all wrapped up in one astonishing package.
As the poet (Tennyson, I think) said: ‘…nature, red in tooth and claw …’
That is some phenomenal footage. Magnificent creature.
Amazing photography! Jerry, in Japan it is known as the UMI NEKKO, “SEA CAT”. I have watched them for hours off the west coast near Tottori, the setting for Kobo Abe’s “Sunna no onna”. THE SAND’S WOMAN.
Gorgeous.
I,too and always intrigued when there’s a one species, one genus family.
Classification and our desire to put things in their place is fascinating.
Should read “I, too, am always intriqued…”
WOW … truly amazing. and the talons on these birds are frightening! Even more scary than the owl ones posted a few days ago. They function like fishhooks. Imagine these buggers going through your skin! ouch.
Yeah. How s/he managed to hang onto that last fish with one talon… Wow!
It’s not stupid either – did you notice how the big catch was lined up like a torpedo to lower wind resistance?
when the fish is no longer plenty this beauty will be gone
good we still have this beauty to admire and sad that there will come the time that it will go extinct
http://www.condition.org/breakdow.htm
They sometimes take fish that are too large for them to carry. Last fall I watched one kill an enormous carp, and then have to drag it clumsily 30m or more through the water to a mudflat to eat as much of it as it could there. No way it was giving up a prize like that!
Awesome video!
Also, did you know that birds are dicks?!
I happened to be listening to this track at the time the video started. It was a perfect match:
Yoshida Brothers Erghen Diado
An awesome predator … immerse themselves completely in water
I indulged in a guilty tv pleasure last week: while setting up my DVR to record Hawking on the Discovery Channel, I saw that it was “Shark Week”. So I clicked record on a show whose premise was to pair shark hunter and Captain Quint model Frank Mundus with a shark conservationist who specializes in high-speed filming of Great Whites obliterating seals off the coast of South Africa. That was a fun show.
One of the marvels of this digital age is to be able to watch from one’s living room in very slow motion and high definition a fish the size of a yacht and teeth the size of your hand emerge from the water, fly through the air, and swallow a large seal in one bite.
Next on the Discovery Channel: Osprey versus Shark!
Excellent video. Almost makes up for the autoplay.
I wonder how long it took to get that underwater shot?
Also, cool after the second strike how it shakes itself off like a DOG in mid-air!
For those interested in raptors, I just found that the Smithsonian Channel has the 45-minute documentary about goshawks On Demand (on Comcast at least). It has incredible footage of the bird’s power, persistence and agility. It’s called Goshawk: Soul of the Wind.
It is the sound quality that amazed me – on headphones I felt as if I was there!
I just spent a week on Vashon island in Washington, and watched a pair of osprey hunting and feeding right in front of my rental house. They’re utterly amazing – beautiful, and incredibly efficient.
These clips are wonderful.
Enjoyed this one as much as the owl footage you posted recently. Very cool.
Side note – I like films of the outdoors so much better without background music (with exceptions of course); how refreshing to have natural ambient sounds for a change.
This plays automatically everytime I visit your blog. How do I stop it? It gets boring the third time over.
wow !
that’s wonderful
I suddenly remembered a moment from my childhood – that includes an Osprey! I was a birdwatcher as a kid, I drew birds from photographs for hours and hours, and I knew WAY more than my parents about birds (about nature all in all, come to think of it 😉 )
We were in our rusty, orange Simca on our way to the summer-cottage in Sweden. I must have been around 10-12 years old. I was in the backseat, it was early morning … probably easter holiday. We turned left up Strandvejen which is a road that goes all the way along Øresund, the sound between Denmark and Sweden. And as we were slowly turning I saw a HUGE bird sitting on a pole near the waters edge – maybe 10 meters from the road. I almost fell out the window, I’d never seen anything like it. By FAR the biggest eagle-like bird I’d EVER seen. White-chested, black/darkwinged and with surprisingly long legs. I screamed in the car “Det er en havørn!” (It’s an Osprey) and my parents said ‘uh hu – really’. I pressed my nose against the window to catch a last glimpse of the magnificent bird as we drove on. I think I smiled for hours after. At that time ospreys were not breeding in Denmark, but only in Sweden. I think it must have been blown off course and needed a break before returnng the Swedish lakes.
(Sorry it got so long)
We live on a small pond (but deep, and with fish and water flow through it, it’s not stagnant). Once, a few years ago, I sat on the deck with my son (about 2 at the time), an osprey dove into the pond right in front of us (couldn’t have been more than 100 ft (30m) from us) and came up with a struggling smallmouth bass and flew off with it. Spectacular!
We also get to see loons taking fish and, every spring when the ice goes out, a pair of otters come and feast on the winter-killed sunfish and perch — nicely held at <40°F (cold fridge temp) for them until they came to eat them.
I've also watched a Cooper's Hawk strike a bird in midair over our yard three times: twice mourning doves, once a robin, all seemed to escape.
And we have many Sandhill Crances and turkeys, among many other smaller birds. I saw a common yellowthroat hunting bugs on our wisteria last weekend.
It's amazing, given that we are only 20 minutes by road from downtown Minneapolis.
I’d love to watch the video, BUT IT DOES NOT SEEM TO BE THERE NOW. No link on the post nop nothin’!
Bald eagles are fundamentally fish eaters, though not exclusively so. Just like ospreys, from time to time one will have the problem of catching a fish too heavy to carry by air. Their solution? They swim to shore using a breast stroke, carrying their catch in their claws.
Bald eagles are quite good swimmers when need be.
Corny joke: where can one buy a Speedo swimsuit for one’s favorite bald eagle?
HOLY CRAP! That fish is bigger than him. How long will it take him to eat it?
Front-page autoplay was bad enough, but NO CONTROLS AT ALL? Boo. Bad netiquette.
I check your web site from work. I do not appreciate a video + audio starting automatically when I come to your web site. Could you please move it below the fold?
Thank you.
My wife and I have a mountain house about a mile from Shadow Mountain Reservoir in Grand County in Colorado. There are always dozens of nested pairs of ospreys in the area this time of the year.
We were lucky to see an osprey dive from a pine tree and take a trout while we were kayaking last week.
In the same lake are American White Pelicans at the same time. The latter are very social and it is a pleasure to watch their morning group flights.