| Osprey |
| Wild Mallorca |
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The Osprey tolerates a wide variety of habitats, nesting in any location near a body of water providing an adequate food supply. It is found on all continents except Antarctica although in South America it occurs only as a non-breeding migrant. As its other common name suggests, the Osprey's diet consists almost exclusively of fish. It has evolved specialised physical characteristics and exhibits unique behaviour to assist in hunting and catching prey. As a result of these unique characteristics, it has been given its own taxonomic genus, Pandion and family, Pandionidae. Four subspecies are usually recognised. Despite its propensity to nest near water, the Osprey is not a sea-eagle. It fishes in the sea, reservoirs, wetlands i.e. lagoons and salt pans catching fish weighing no more than half a kilo. It has been observed that for every one hundred dives into the water to catch their prey they are in fact only successful on around a dozen attempts. At the moment there are some fourteen breeding pairs of Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, spending their winters in the Balearic Islands . They have built their nests on the coastal cliffs of Mallorca, Menorca and Cabrera and every year they add new material to theese nests. They can reach two metres in height and one and half metres in width. The female lays two to four eggs and hatches and rears the chicks between March and April. The male provides them with food, but as soon as the chicks are a month old, the female also helps to catch fish. The chicks are ready to fly for the first time at one and a half months old. |
The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), sometimes known as the sea hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey. It is a large raptor, reaching 60 centimetres (24 in) in length with a 1.8 metre (6 ft) wingspan. It is brown on the upperparts and predominantly greyish on the head and underparts, with a black eye patch and wings.