This Osprey Is Not A Lammergeier

Explanation: As we were boating down the Kootenai River in northern Idaho, winging overhead, clutching a freshly-caught fish in its talons, was this Osprey. This is clearly a bird of prey, or a raptor.

And here starts an interesting little journey into the origin of names that we commonly use but often have no clue as to their true origins and meanings.

First, according to the wonderful Online Etymology Dictionary, the word "raptor" dates to the late 14th century raptour, meaning a "plundering bird of prey" ... and to about 1600 meaning "ravisher, abductor," and wasn't used in ornithology to refer to birds of prey until 1873.

Well and good, as I suppose that name fits many birds of prey well, including our Osprey here.

But then ... take the word "osprey." It dates to the mid-15th century word osprai, meaning "sea-eagle," in turn derived from the Medieval Latin avis prede or "bird of prey," and from the generic Latin avis praedæ.

And here lies the confusion.

In Old French, the term osprey was confused with the Latin ossifraga which is the name of a different raptorial bird.

Ossifraga? Ossi ... fraga. Bone ... fragment. The Latin root ossifraga pertained to a vulture, and literally to "bone-breaker."

So what vulture is a bone-breaker? Why, that is the large vulture species, the Lammergeier, that is known to pick bones from carcasses and drop them from the air onto the rocks below, shattering them so that the bird can then pick out the soft marrow within.

As it went, in merry old England and France, the terms were also applied to the Osprey, apparently confusing osprai and ossifraga or the like.

And there you have it: this Osprey is not a Lammergeier ... ! Who knew?

EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week