Osprey
Amazing fact
An osprey rearranges a fish to face forward as it flies.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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An osprey rearranges a fish to face forward as it flies.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Osprey
- Scientific name
- Pandion haliaetus
- Japanese name
- ミサゴ
- Group
- Birds
- Class
- Aves
- Order
- Accipitriformes
- Family
- Pandionidae
- Genus
- Pandion
A bird of prey in the hawk group that lives by coasts, large lakes and rivers. Its back is dark, and its face and belly are white.
Spiny pads on the soles of its feet and sharp claws help it hold on to slippery fish.
How the Osprey lives
It is active during the day. It takes fish to a perch to eat. It breeds on shores or in large trees, and northern Japanese birds move to warmer areas in winter.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web日本野鳥の会 BIRD FANBasic data
- Size
- Total length: 55–63 cmWingspan: 157–174 cm日本野鳥の会 BIRD FAN
- Weight
- 1,200–2,000 gUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Active
- By day (diurnal)University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
- Diet
- Mullet, sea bass and other fish国土交通省 山国川河川事務所
- Range
- Worldwide except AntarcticaUniversity of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
Where the Osprey has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- ミサゴ
- 简体中文
- 鹗
- 繁體中文
- 魚鷹
- 한국어
- 물수리
- Español
- Águila pescadora
- Français
- Balbuzard pêcheur
- Deutsch
- Fischadler
- Português (Brasil)
- Águia pescadora
- Italiano
- Falco pescatore
- العربية
- عقاب نسارية
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Elang tiram
- Tiếng Việt
- Ó cá
- Русский
- Скопа
- Türkçe
- Balık kartalı
- বাংলা
- মাছমুরাল
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 日本野鳥の会 BIRD FAN — ミサゴChecked: 2026-11-03
- 国土交通省 山国川河川事務所 — 山国川の鳥図鑑 ミサゴChecked: 2026-11-03
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Pandion haliaetusChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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