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The
Osprey or sometimes referred to as the Fish Hawk
has a very unique way in catching its prey.
Fishing method:
The bird starts by flying high
and gliding in circles over the water until it spots a its
prey using its extreme sharp eyesight, the prey should not
exceed 1 meter under the sea surface. Then it increases
its height while maintaining the prey in sight. From this
altitude the fish hawk make what is called a dead dive,
flying down towards its prey at full speed which could reach
up to 160 km/h. One of the unique fishing skills is the
ability to calculate the refractive index of water and estimate
the exact location of the fish. Just before hitting the
water the fish hawk makes a complete position change, bringing
its legs in front, claws wide open, wings back, head leaning
forward, then dives in that position to depths which could
reach up to 1 meter underwater depending on the skill of
individual birds.
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Once
the bird senesces the fish it closes it claws and having its
wings back the bird pulls them downward giving it trust enough
to take off out of the water.
At this moment the fish is still struggling to free itself
from the claws which makes it hard for the fish hawk to maintain
a good grip of it, specially that it has just consumed a lot
of energy as well as being wet which increases the weight
excessively. This is where another skill is acquired. the
Fish Hawk flaps its wings in fast and short strokes, this
is not tiring to the bird but works to free the feathers from
water to lighten the weight, this process continues for around
30 to 60 seconds, enough time for the fish to die and hence
make it easy for the Fish Hawk to fly back to its nest. |
