Ospreys

Pandion is a genus of fish-eating bird of prey, known as ospreys, the only genus of the family Pandionidae. The genus Pandion is named for the mythical Greek figure of the same name. Some taxonomic arrangements place it alongside the hawks and eagles in the family Accipitridae — which itself can be regarded as making up the bulk of the order Accipitriformes — or else allied with the Falconidae into Falconiformes. The Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy has placed it together with the other diurnal raptors in a greatly enlarged Ciconiiformes, but this results in an unnatural paraphyletic classification.

Most taxonomic treatments have regarded this genus as containing a single living species, separated into subspecies and found worldwide near water, while some treatments recognize two living species, splitting off the eastern osprey (Pandion (haliaetus) cristatus) from Australia and southeast Asia.