Osprey

Pandion haliaetus

The osprey is a large, brownish-black raptor with black and white underparts. Adults have:

• A mostly white head with a broad black stripe running through both eyes.

• Females have a "necklace" of brown-tipped breast feathers.

• Grow to about 25 inches long, with a wingspan of about 65 inches.
• In flight, ospreys are mostly white below with a black patch in the crooks or "wrists" of the wings.

Where does the osprey live?

Ospreys can be found throughout the tidal Chesapeake and its tributaries from early March through spring and summer. Around mid-August they migrate south of the United States for the winter.

What does the osprey eat?

Ospreys feed almost exclusively on medium-sized fish.

• They hunt by flying high above the water and searching for schooling and spawning fish.
• Once it spots its prey, an osprey will hover over it while beating its wings, then quickly plunge its talons into the water to capture it.
• Ospreys are opportunists and will feed on any fish species that is plentiful or readily accessible at a given time.

What does the osprey sound like?

The osprey's call is a piercing, chirping cheep-cheep or yewk-yewk. When they are near their nest, ospreys make a sharp, frenzied cheereek!

Where does the osprey nest and breed?

Ospreys three years old or older usually mate for life, and return each subsequent year to nest in their natal area.

• Experienced breeders begin arriving at previously used nest sites in late February to early March. Males arrive a few days before the females. Courtship and nest building or repair begins when the pair is reunited.
• Less experienced osprey arrive or initiate courtship a little later and first-time nesters may spend several weeks locating a mate and nest site.
• Pairs collect corn stalks, branches and shoreline debris to create a bulky nest on a dead snag, utility pole, nest platform or other structure near water.
• Between mid-April and late May, females lay a clutch of about three beige, chicken-size eggs, which she incubates for 38 to 42 days after laying the first egg.
• Nestlings are brooded and fed fish for about 40 days, when they begin to resemble adults, but with reddish-orange eyes and feathers edged in buff.
• At about 55 days old the young begin to fly. Families remain together near the nest site through July while fledglings learn to fish.
• Adults begin migration as soon as fledglings become independent. Juveniles migrate the last week of August.

Other facts about the osprey:

• Can be confused with bald eagles. You can distinguish an osprey by the black patches across its eyes and in the crooks of its wings.
• There are approximately 2,000 nesting pairs of ospreys in the Bay region—about one quarter of all nesting ospreys in the contiguous United States.