Falco haliætus Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 91.
Pandion haliaëtus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1874), 1, 449;
Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 315; McGregor and Worcester,
Hand-List (1906), 45.
Luzon (Worcester, Whitehead); Mindoro (Everett, McGregor,
Whitehead); Palawan (Whitehead). Eastern hemisphere.
"Adult.--Above brown, most of the feathers with obsolete margins
of paler brown, more distinct on the wing-coverts; primaries black,
secondaries brown like the back, the primaries pale, but uniform whity
brown below, the secondaries whitish on the inner web, with indistinct
bars of ashy brown; tail almost uniform brown, tipped with whity brown,
and shaded with ashy externally, the inner web obsoletely barred
with ashy brown, a little more distinct below, where the interspaces
are whitish; head brown, with white bases to the feathers; a broad
white streak from behind the eye running down the sides of the neck;
ear-coverts blackish brown; sides of neck uniform with the back;
sides of face and entire under parts white, the breast varied with
brown centers to the feathers of more or less extent, the chin and
fore part of cheeks also slightly streaked with dark brown; axillars
and a few of the flank-feathers also marked with rufous-brown like
the breast; under wing-coverts buffy white, with dark brown centers,
the outermost almost entirely brown, with whitish tips. Cere blue;
bill black; feet blue; iris yellow. Length, 610; culmen, 44; wing,
503; tail, 241; tarsus, 61.
"Young.--Glossy chocolate-brown, all the feathers terminally
margined with buffy white, these margins somewhat tinged with
rufous, and broadest on the secondary quills and upper tail-coverts;
crown of head black, with white or fulvous margins to the feathers,
giving a distinctly streaked appearance; nape white, not streaked;
from behind the eye a broad line of white runs down the side of
the neck, slightly streaked with black; below this another line of
black feathers, including the ear-coverts, is conterminous; sides
of face and entire under parts pure white, somewhat tinged here and
there with yellowish buff; under wing-coverts white, the outer ones
strongly washed with tawny-buff, and crossed with broad bars of dark
brown; primaries black, secondaries chocolate-brown like the back,
and tipped in the same manner, all of them whitish at base of inner
web, indistinctly barred with pale brown; tail-feathers alternately
barred with dark sepia-brown and ashy brown, tipped with whitish,
and having whitish shafts; the bars six in number, and more distinct
on the inner web, which is buffy white.
"Nestling.--Covered with down of a sooty-brown color, except along
the center of the back, along the carpal bend of the wing, on the
breast and flanks, where it is dusky white; all the feathers of the
back are dark brown, with a broad tip of ochraceous-buff; crown and
ear-coverts blackish; eyebrow and throat white.
"Observation.--Ospreys seem to get whiter on the head with age; but
the mottling on the breast is at present unintelligible to me. It
appears to be strongly marked in all old birds; but the brown centers
to the feathers, which give the bird its mottled appearance, are
never exactly similar, there being a continued alteration in the
pattern of the feather itself. At the same time two young birds,
distinguished by the fulvous margins to the upper surface, have not
a similar amount of brown on the breast; for in one it is almost
entirely absent, while the other has very few markings indeed. The
tail becomes more uniform brown with age, so that a strongly barred
tail is a sure sign of immaturity." (Sharpe.)