Watch its near instant liftoff in this series of photos that show off its flying skills
One minute the Osprey sits perched on the top branch of its favorite tree, and the next, the bird is instantly airborne. The Osprey’s five-foot wingspan powers a liftoff just as fascinating as the famous launches that take place just up the road at Cape Canaveral.
The launch is over in seconds, so fast it looks like a blur of feathers as this Osprey swings out over the stretch of wetlands to begin its next fishing trip.
In a few more seconds, the Osprey is circling the marshes, bright yellow telescopic eyes seeing three to five times further than humans. Here’s how the bird looked from the ground, scouring the surface of the water.
We’d been keeping an eye on this Osprey for more than half an hour as it stood like a sentry, barely swiveling its head back and forth watching over the fishing grounds. We had the good luck to be ready when the moment finally came, catching the action in this series of photos that, taken apart, reveal the avian mechanics of a species sometimes called the fish hawk.
The name is because the Osprey is one of the world’s most impressive fishing machines. Its talons are lined with scales perfect for grabbing fish with a vice-like grip. We were especially captivated by the nearly instantaneous takeoff: how its wings reach forward and back like oars to propel the bird up and away. Amid all of that, its wing feathers dance just ahead of the bird at times.
We’ll end this post with these scenes, gathered over the past few years, of various Ospreys diving for fish and then struggling from the water back into the air. Osprey’s need about a pound of fish every day, which they’ll gather over the course of a day — or sometimes from a single fish that can weigh as much as they do. We never get tired of watching this magnificent fishing machine in action.
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