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Saw this today over the River Tweed. Classic osprey territory and near a known nest. Ospreys have arrived back from Africa in the past couple of weeks so I defaulted to certain knowledge that I saw an osprey, this is backed up by Gemini. ChatGPT is adamant that it is a juvenile golden eagle. There are nesting pairs in the region but generally in more open areas. I’d love it to be the latter but still chuffed if it osprey. Expert thoughts?
First glance I thought ‘Cormorant’ but IDK.
The top image is of a Cormorant and is from the Merlin app.
Could be an Osprey but that picture is a bit far away and makes it feet look webby to me.
This image of an Eurasian osprey is clipped from Merlin. 
very amateur birder here. I am fairly sure that is not a juvenile golden eagle, obviously there's a chance given the distance of the photo but in my experience the birds are pretty unmistakable, even from something like a sea eagle
Iirc the golden eagle has a white tail when it's juvenile (and the white tailed eagle has a brown tail when juve). So if it wasn't obviously big enough to be an eagle then I'd guess not that.
Colouring looks good for a cormorant. It has big finger like primary feathers on your pic, I'd need to get the Collins field guide out to see if cormorant wings are the same.
I’ll bite. Baby Robin?
If we're playing that game is it a Saturday morning shag? Pretty much extinct in this area but you might be luckier.
I'd say not a cormorant, too much wing. If that is a fish it's carrying id go with osprey, but it's a bit dark..
Cormorant wings and tail look much pointier in flight than that, and I don't think I've seen one at an altitude that you'd be able to get that kind of pic from below.
Can't help on the osprey/eagle differentiation I'm afraid,
If we're playing that game is it a Saturday morning shag
But as it was yday perhaps it's a Good Friday Shag, and Frank's smiling
osprey with fishy, great shot!
It is a little dark undernath, they are a brown bird on top, but a white one underneath which makes them shits to photograph in direct light. I think what's going on here is the computational photography (aka imagination) bit of the camera phone running out of ideas.
Major tells for me are a) the fishy b) long pointy wings. Eagles are an English Bull Terrier with a couple of doors taped on. Ospreys actually look like something that should fly.
heres a pic with both sides of the osprey sorta visible:
oh and heres a juenile goldie for comparison. Note a) how slabby the wings are, b) that the primary feathers (wingtips) are longer than a magpie, you can also see the white band on the tail that marks it out as a juvenile. This one is probably about 2 years old, its got its golden mane coming on. They are mature at 5 years.
I went to see the Glaslyn Osprey’s yesterday before I came home from holiday, the live feed is good to watch on YouTube. It’s made me so enthusiastic at my first sighting that I’m planning another trip in a few weeks and going to cycle round the estuary and coast to find them hunting.
I'd say not a cormorant, too much wing. If that is a fish it's carrying id go with osprey, but it's a bit dark..
lucky to see boobies around here.
Yep, it's definitely a bird.
I have a tame twitcher on hand, I've asked the question and shall report back.
"Very doubtful its a golden eagle. Markings under the wing is leaning towards osprey. Golden eagles are huge with wingspan and ospreys have started arriving back from Africa."
Looks like Osprey with unfortunate fish to me.
Osprey wings do that 'fold down in a curve to near vertically down at the tips' when they fly.
I saw my first osprey of the year this morning at North Third Reservoir , Stirling.
I doubt it’s an eagle - I see them (WTE) regularly and they fly over my house - the primary wing feathers aren’t pronounced enough and the wing shape is too tapered. Redthunder’s edit of the OP’s photo certainly seems to be more Osprey-like.
I have a friend who is a keen ornithologist and he says it's an Osprey.
Years since I've got close to Boobies, let alone a shag.
It has big finger like primary feathers on your pic
So do ravens.
Could be an Osprey, I live in north Wiltshire, and having taken a fairly long and scenic route home from town, I was stood on the bridge over the Avon that has the Sustrans route across towards Calne and Marlborough. There was a large bird flying towards me, which I thought was a heron, until it got closer and I could see it was carrying a large fish! It was close enough to see the colour of the fish, possibly a bream, there were lots more in the river below where I was standing, and it flew across and landed on a utility pole about half a mile away and started eating the fish. That was in September, so I guess it was building up its reserves to migrate across to Africa. The colours were all wrong for a heron as well, once it got closer.
Quite a thrill to see a bird like that so close, and I was the only person around who saw it! Sadly not enough of an opportunity to get a photo with my phone. 🤷🏼♂️
As a keen birder and been lucky enough to see osprey, I’m going for Osprey.
Nice to see with prey.
My first instinct in looking before I’d read any of the thread was osprey. The wing shape and fish are what does it for me.
I haven’t (knowingly) seen any juvenile eagles, but the striking thing about seeing an adult one is that you definitely know you’ve seen an eagle