Osprey

Pandion haliaetus

At the top of the Chesapeake Bay's food chain soars one of North America’s largest birds of prey and one of the most widespread birds on earth: the osprey.

At about 24 inches tall with a wingspan of up to six feet, the oft-called “fish hawk” sometimes competes with the bald eagle for food. With a diet consisting almost exclusively of live fish, these large raptors hover over the water at an altitude of 50 to 200 feet, diving in feet first to catch their prey near the surface.

Ospreys migrate south for the winter and mate for life, reuniting each spring at the same nest area. Their conspicuous stick nests, found atop dead trees, channel markers, telephone poles, and other structures have been known to include rubber boots, bicycle tires, Hula Hoops, television antennae, Styrofoam cups and plastic containers -- just one more important reason to keep our waterways and landscapes free of trash and debris.

Once nearly eradicated in the Chesapeake region -- widespread use of pesticides pre-1972 resulted in eggs too frail to survive – by 1996 there were more than 3,500 nesting pairs in the Bay area, making this the largest concentrated osprey population in the world. However, ospreys are once again in trouble, and current osprey reproduction is not enough to sustain the Chesapeake’s population, according researchers at the College of William and Mary’s Center for Conservation Biology and summarized by the USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center. Rather than thin eggshells, this time food insufficiency and chick starvation appear to be the problem.

You can help

You can see and report the results of osprey nesting at the OspreyWatch website to help researchers better understand the problem.

See them up close!

Ospreys are common from the spring through the fall at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. They use nesting platforms that have been placed throughout the marsh. Osprey and eagle interactions are interesting to watch due to their natural competition for fish resources. You can see them live when they're nesting on the Friends of Blackwater’s Osprey Cam. In Southern Maryland, Smallwood State Park and Patuxent River Park also have Osprey Cams.

Photo credit: John Whaley (Osprey in flight with fish); Ron Callaghan (Osprey in nest) both photos submitted to DNR Photo Contest