When hanging out at Redfish Lake or driving down the highway you may have noticed a large brown and white bird making large circles over a body of water. This is my favorite bird of prey, the Osprey. This bird is most easily recognizable by its distinct white belly with brown wings. I remember growing up as a kid seeing them often catching fish or watching over a river. Some of my favorite memories include watching a Bald Eagle fight one trying to steal a fish the Osprey had caught. I never truly realized how unique, and quite frankly cool, the Osprey was. For starters everyone has probably seen one because they are one of only six landbirds found worldwide. The other birds include Peregrine Falcon, Barn Owl, Gull-billed Tern, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, House Sparrow, and Rock Pigeon. This means they have very specialised adaptations that have allowed them to live in a variety of environments.
These adaptations are usually focused on their diet which is also incredibly unique. They are piscivorous, which means they exclusively eat fish, which is common among birds such as sea eagles, but they are the only land bird of prey to have this diet. They have been seen to occasionally eat small rodents and carrion but that is rare. For this blog I wanted to focus on the adaptations that make the Osprey truly unique.
Photo Credit: “Osprey” by GlacierNPS is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
Firstly the talons of the Osprey have a reversible outer toe which is only found among a few select birds including owls. The reason behind this is it allows them to grasp slippery fish a lot easier. Typically with birds of prey, such as a Bald Eagle, you will notice they have three talons in the front and one in the back. Osprey can also use this configuration but change it when they are hunting. Even down to smaller aspects of the talons when looking at the scales themselves they are reversed from what you would see on a typical bird of prey. This essentially acts like a barb for the Osprey, giving them a very tight grasp on the fish.
If that wasn’t cool enough for you, the Osprey has something even better: built in sunglasses. If you look closely at an Osprey’s face you will notice a brown band that covers its eyes. I originally thought at first this was just for show but the brown acts as sunglasses which pulls the reflecting lights from rivers away from their eyes and reduces that glare you would typically see on top of the water. Their eyes are incredible too, they have a bone which acts as an impact absorber so their eyes don’t get injured when they slam down into the water to catch a fish. The bone essentially looks like a big circle that caps around the outer edge of their eye. This allows them to also keep their eyes open the entire time while they are dive bombing. This is aided by a special membrane on the eye which helps protect it from impact and debris.
Photo Credit: “Osprey Hovering” by U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region is marked with Public Domain Mark 1.0.
When looking at all these adaptations, what I truly love about Ospreys, is that they are a great example of how every little detail of anatomy on animals can show what the animal is designed to do. All these little details can show how incredible animal adaptations can be in helping an animal survive in its usual environment. The Osprey is only one example of how I love looking at an animal and trying to piece together why their bodies and behaviors developed a certain way. Once you start to understand adaptations, you can start to take a look at other animals and plants and piece together what purpose each detail serves.
Eddy Black is a 2025 SIHA Naturalist returning from the 2022 season. When he isn’t working at the Redfish Visitor Center, he enjoys hiking to mountain lakes and fishing throughout the SNRA.