Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

Painting by Missy Dunaway. Created with acrylic ink on paper. 30x22 inches (76x56 cm)

Painting Key

Fauna: 2 Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus)

Objects: 9 Osprey feathers, 3 osprey eggs, 1 rainbow

Shakespeare’s Osprey

Occurrences in text: 1

Plays: Coriolanus

Name as it appears in the text: “osprey”

Meet the Osprey

Before diving into Shakespeare’s relationship with the osprey, I’d like to share a personal encounter with this remarkable raptor.

When I began my Birds of Shakespeare project, I volunteered at a wild avian rehabilitation center to gain hands-on experience with birds. On my first day, I was given a tour of the property and stopped to speak with a volunteer carrying an osprey to its enclosure. The volunteer held the osprey by its ankles while the bird leaned against her chest, facing outward. As we talked, I found myself face-to-face with this raptor, whose feathers stuck out at odd angles from its head. Its piercing, yellow eyes stared into mine, and its beak was agape, with its tongue sticking out. It was surreal and a little humorous to introduce myself and tell this very attentive osprey about my project.

I inquired about the difference between an eagle, hawk, and falcon. A veterinarian on site explained that the simplest distinction is that a hawk has a larger wingspan than a falcon, and an eagle has a larger cranium than a hawk. Another distinction is that eagles dine on surf and turf, but hawks, while opportunistic, primarily eat land animals. Where does the osprey fit in? Remarkably, the osprey is the only hawk to eat seafood exclusively, earning it the nickname “fishing-hawk” (not to be confused with “sea eagle,” which refers to the white-tailed eagle).[1]

I learned that ospreys have a reputation for being comical at the avian refuge: they are clumsy and often make the silliest facial expressions as they like to keep their tongue protruding from an open beak—a common bird behavior to ventilate heat. They are also remarkably filthy. I can attest to this, as my primary job was mucking out a never-ending parade of cages and enclosures.

The Osprey in Early Modern Culture

Ospreys, in their natural habitat, are anything but awkward and clumsy. They are powerful, acrobatic flyers that grace shorelines on every continent except Antarctica.[2] According to Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland by William Harrison and Raphael Holinshed (1586), early modern people used ospreys for hunting fish. They captured the osprey's young to attract the parents, who would bring fish to feed their offspring. The human captors would then take the fish.

We haue also ospraies which bréed with vs in parks and woods, wherby the kéepers of the same doo reape in bréeding time no small commoditie: for so soone almost as the yoong are hatched, they tie them to the but ends or ground ends of sundrie trees, where the old ones finding them, doo neuer cease to bring fish vnto them, which the keepers take & eat from them, and commonlie is such as is well fed, or not of the worst sort.[3]

Harrison also shares a rumor that the osprey has two distinct feet: one with talons for hunting and the other webbed for swimming. This strange theory is not true, but was put forth to explain the osprey’s ability to exist in both air and sea.

It hath not béene my hap hitherto to see anie of these foules, & partlie through mine owne negligence: but I heare that it hath one foot like an hawke to catch hold withall, and another resembling a goose wherewith to swim; but whether it be so or not so, I refer the further search and triall thereof vnto some other. This neuertheles is certeine that both aliue and dead, yea euen hir verie oile is a deadlie terrour to such fish as come within the wind of it.[4]

Shakespeare’s Osprey

The osprey is such an adept fisherbird that early modern folklore claimed it dazzled fish and attracted them to the surface for easy catching.[5] Shakespeare mentions the osprey only once, in Coriolanus. He describes the titular character as a magnetic foe who, like an osprey, captivates and dominates those around him.

In this play, the Roman general Caius Martius earns the name 'Coriolanus' after single-handedly capturing the city of Corioles. He expects to be named consul due to his military achievements, but as a formality, he must seek the approval of the citizens (plebeians), whom he despises. His contempt alienates the common people, and they refuse to support his bid for consulship, leading to his banishment from Rome. In response, Coriolanus seeks the help of his former enemy, Tullus Aufidius, to exact revenge by attacking Rome. However, in the end, Aufidius turns against him, and Coriolanus is assassinated.

Coriolanus (left) is so beloved by the Roman nobility that he is likened to an osprey that dazzles its prey. Painting by Richard Westall, ca. 1800. Folger Shakespeare Library

In the play’s fourth act, Aufidius expresses his deep frustration about how the Roman nobility adores Coriolanus. He speculates that Coriolanus will take Rome as naturally as an osprey catches its prey, which was believed to surrender to ospreys without a struggle.[6]

Coriolanus, Act IV, Scene 7, Line 30

AUFIDIUS: All places yields to him ere he sits down,
 And the nobility of Rome are his;
 The Senators and Patricians love him too.
 The Tribunes are no soldiers, and their people
 Will be as rash in the repeal as hasty
 To expel him thence. I think he’ll be to Rome
 As is the osprey to the fish, who takes it
 By sovereignty of nature. 

Shakespeare’s Rainbow

In my painting, I portrayed the osprey as a dazzling creature by surrounding it with sea sparkles and a flash of a rainbow. I chose not to bend the rainbow into the familiar arch but instead shaped it into a prism that mimics the osprey’s dive.

I selected a rainbow because it is a natural spectacle that draws our gaze skyward, just as the osprey draws fish to the water’s surface. Shakespeare includes the rainbow four times in his writing. Two of these references are found in descriptions of violence, mirroring the osprey’s duality of beauty and brutality.

In The Merry Wives of Windsor, the ever-exaggerating Falstaff inflates his misfortunes by claiming to be “beaten into all the colors of the rainbow,” referring to colors that appear around bruises:

The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene 5, Line 115

FALSTAFF: What tell’st thou me of black and blue? I was
 beaten myself into all the colors of the rainbow,
 and I was like to be apprehended for the witch of
 Brentford. But that my admirable dexterity of wit,
 my counterfeiting the action of an old woman, delivered
120 me, the knave constable had set me i’ th’
 stocks, i’ th’ common stocks, for a witch.

The rainbow is mentioned four times in Shakespeare’s writing. Two references are used to describe violence, such as Lucrece’s tears after suffering an assault. This illustration by B. Eyles depicts a sorrowful Lucrece contemplating suicide. Folger Shakespeare Library

In line 1583 of The Rape of Lucrece, we find another description within a disturbing image. After Tarquin’s assault, Lucrece is overcome by sorrow, and tears stream from her blue eyes like rain falling from two rainbows:

But now the mindful messenger, come back,
Brings home his lord and other company,
Who finds his Lucrece clad in mourning black,
And round about her tear-distainèd eye
Blue circles streamed like rainbows in the sky.
These water-galls in her dim element
Foretell new storms to those already spent;

In my painting of the osprey, I aimed to capture its regal presence in the wild. The osprey’s effortless mastery over its prey mirrors the ease with which Coriolanus dominates his surroundings, both in battle and in the hearts of the Roman elite. Like the rainbow’s sudden burst of color across the sky, this majestic bird commands attention and respect, embodying the sovereignty of nature—a theme that resonates deeply in Shakespeare’s literature.

Endnotes

[1] Phipson, Emma. Animal Lore of Shakespeare’s Time. (Glastonbury, UK: Kegan Paul, 1883), 252.

[2] “Osprey.” The Peregrine Fund. https://peregrinefund.org/explore-raptors-species/osprey/osprey. Accessed 20 Aug 2024.

[3] Holinshed, Raphael and Harrison, William. Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Vol 1. (New York: AMS Press Inc., 1807).

[4] Holinshed, Raphael and Harrison, William. Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Vol 1. (New York: AMS Press Inc., 1807).

[5] Harting, J., The Birds of Shakespeare, (London: John Van Voorst, Paternoster Row, 1871).

[6] Shakespeare, William. "Coriolanus." The Norton Anthology. 2nd ed. Eds. Greenblatt, Stephen, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, and Katherine Eisaman Maus. New York: W.W Norton, 2008. 3106. Print.