The Slow Motion Beauty and Skill of an Ospreys Dive Wild Birds Revealed

Osprey are expert hunters. They eat one thing, live fish, and they've evolved to catch them better than any other raptor. We wanted to take a close look at how they do it, so we packed our cameras and went to coastal Maine for the alewife run. A few short weeks when millions of fish surge upstream to spawn. For osprey, it's prime feeding time and they know exactly when to strike. We're Russ and Tim Lehman, wildlife filmmakers and photographers on assignment for the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and this is Wild Birds Revealed. OM System offers birders and nature photographers lightweight, weather-sealed gear with strong image stabilization and powerful super telephoto lenses, all built for handheld freedom to capture amazing moments. To capture great footage, we need to match the rhythm of nature and right now, alewife are on the move. Every spring along the coast of Maine, rivers like this pulse with life as alewife fish return from the sea and go upriver to spawn in the freshwater lakes, and that creates a magnet for predators. These gulls are creating a gauntlet for the running alewife, lunging and squabbling at every fish that goes by and turning a quick lunch into a full body experience. Alewife are about 10 to 12 inches long and weigh half a pound. A little big for this American herring gull, but the perfect size meal for an osprey. The rivers are so full, even bald eagles are showing up. Some chasing ospreys mid-flight, trying to steal their catch. That's because osprey are much better at fishing than eagles are. An osprey just caught an alewife and A male osprey with chicks might need to catch nearly three pounds of fish each day to feed his family. That's a lot of fishing. Our main goal with our photography today is to try to capture that moment when an osprey hits the water and then comes out with a fish. Turns out it's a little bit harder than we thought it might be because the ospreys have so many options about where they can dive. Yeah we've almost gotten it a lot of times now. You can see there's a large pool here and it's pretty hard to tell where they're going to dive before they actually hit the water. Even the last second they tend to change direction. You have to be very reactive and try and get on them in the last second right before they hit the water. So still hoping to nail the plunge with the slow motion camera. It's tough. The camera has to be focused on the right spot and at just the right time. We got osprey diving just off frame and one who I had lined up perfectly but then decided to keep his fishing spot a secret. Where is he? Right in that tree up there. Oh divey divey divey. Got it. Yeah? Yeah I got it. It all unfolds in just a few seconds. An osprey dives, snatches a fish, and lifts off like it's no big deal. But in slow motion the precision comes into focus. Each part of this bird from head to talon is perfectly adapted for the hunt. The osprey pulls its wings back, locks eyes on a fish below, and brings its talons forward lining up a perfect strike. Ospreys are the only raptor that dive underwater to seize their prey. And now it faces a challenge, pulling both itself and a struggling fish back into the air. It stretches its wings straight up. Those extra long primary feathers, longer than in other raptors, generate powerful lift from the wing tips. Watch closely and you'll see a deep crook in the wings, so distinctive in ospreys. That bend helps rotate the wing tips to flap with full power while staying clear of the water. It's what gives them their unique ability for vertical liftoff. And check out those feet covered in rough scaly skin for grip, with reversible outer toes to hold slippery prey tight. They always carry their catch head first, streamlined for flight, and ready for the next dive. Video gives you a sense of the motion, but a great still photograph freezes time, capturing the kind of detail you'd miss in a blink. Instead of an osprey, you're just like hovering right here and then dove like right in front of me. And look, I got it on the still camera. Okay, look at this. Here he comes in. One, two, three. In focus. Feet in front. Feet in front. Look at that. Right in the middle of the frame. Boom. It's the water. That's awesome. Comes out with a fish. Now look closely. This angle from below reveals that deep crook in the osprey's wings. And now compare that to a bald eagle. Its wings are broader and straighter in flight, perfect for soaring, but without the crook in their wings, they can't take off out of the water. Capturing this story is all about patience and timing. Being in the right place, watching closely, and letting the birds reveal their world. And now that we've seen them up close, we can't stop watching. There's always more to see when you slow down and watch birds closely. Thanks for watching this episode of Wild Birds Revealed. Check out more of our episodes on the Cornell Labs YouTube channel and at allaboutbirds.org.