Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

• Appearance: Brown back, white underside, white markings on head and wings
  • • Females (left) larger than males (right) and have dark markings on breast, head, neck
• Length: 21-23 inches
• Wingspan: 60-70 inches (about 5-6 feet)
• Status: was endangered due to high pesticide use in mid-1900s, but making a comeback all across North America (DDT sprayed for mosquitos thinned and weakened eggshells)
• Habitat– ESTUARIES
  • Nest over coastlines, lakes, and rivers where fish are abundant
    • Nest is large pile of sticks
    • Ospreys like to nest on large trees and poles, may settle on ground of small islands, as long as it is open to the sky
    • Average brood: 1-4 eggs, creamy-white and blotched
      • Only brood once per year
    • Sometimes birds use same nest over many years/generations and nest grows with passage of time
  • Range (in Americas): mainly along the coast of North America (Florida and California year-round) and Mexico, also found in Great Lakes region and Hudson River during breeding season
    • Settle in Long Island and other New England coastal areas during summer

• Diet
  • Almost entirely fish (4 to 12 inches long)
  • Fly 30-100 feet above water, hover over target, dive at water’s surface, grab prey in talons, sometimes may catch more than one fish per dive if fish are schooling
  • Overfishing can create food shortages for ospreys, in which case they will hunt small mammals, reptiles, or birds
• Migration
  • New England to South America- Amazon Rainforest (Amazon, Madeira Rivers; Cuba coastline; Colombia coastline
  • Some ospreys do overwinter in Florida, California, and Mexico, but a many of the ospreys found in these ranges are non-migratory
  • May take 2-4 weeks for ospreys to make a complete migration, depending on where they start from
    • Ospreys can fly up to 45 km/hr, with strong wind up to 80 km/hr
      • Ospreys can fly the length of Long Island in about 5 hours
    • Ospreys tend to make rest stops ranging from overnight to a few days, which is often when they hunt to refuel
    • Adult ospreys migrate faster because young ospreys may get lost along the journey north or south- sometimes even taking a detour over open ocean
      • If an osprey gets lost, it may turn back to its wintering site for a few days before setting out again
  • Female ospreys begin migration to breeding areas about a month before males
  • Male ospreys make nests an average of 4 days before females arrive, so males probably fly a more direct route with less stops
  • Overwintering ospreys form small flocks (6-10 birds), but during breeding season pairs roost alone (usually a few miles distance between nests)
  • Osprey hatchlings learn to fly within 40-50 days, but hunt and roost near the parents until migration begins
  • Siblings often learn to fly and hunt together until migration, in which they set out alone and become independent from their parents
• Nesting
  • Ospreys usually mate for lives and return to the same nesting areas
    • If another osprey approaches the nest of a breeding pair, females protect nest and may engage in an aerial chase
    • When males are not hunting they assume overhead position of nest
  • Ospreys make their nests on Long Island to breed
    • They collect barks, sticks, sod, and anything else that seems appropriate for their nests, which includes paper and plastic that washes up on the shoreline