Osprey

The osprey doesn’t get the attention it deserves, probably because it’s too common in some places and too remote in others.

Perch posture is half the ID. A osprey hunched, a osprey alert, and a osprey in the wind look like three different birds.

Taxonomy here follows a standard order-level frame (Accipitriformes / Pandionidae); common synonymies are noted when I’ve seen them used in the field.

One winter I had a pair stay on the same river bend from November into late March and I wasn’t sick of them at the end.

Some of my worst photographs are of this species. I keep trying anyway.