Click on speaker
to hear the Osprey!Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
Click on speaker
to hear the Osprey!
HOW
DO OSPREYS HUNT? Ospreys are fish hawks that have brown and white
markings on their feathers. They can soar on
wind currents, but most of their flight is active (with wings flapping.) Ospreys hunt alone, flying over the water looking
for fish. Then they plunge into the water
feet-first and grab the fish with powerful talons (claws.)
Ospreys need to catch about 1 - 3 fish a day.
A father osprey, who must fish for 2-3 babies and a mate, has to catch 6-8
fish a day. Ospreys are specially built to be
fish-hunters. For one thing, the bottoms of
their feet have many short spines which help them to hang onto a slimy fish. Ospreys have extremely sharp talons and a strong
hooked beak for tearing fish into bite-sized pieces. They
also have oily feathers which help keep them dry when they splash into the water.WHAT
ABOUT BABY OSPREYS?
Ospreys
like to make their nests in dead trees because there are no leaves to get in the way when
they’re taking off. It is also harder for
predators (dangerous animals) to climb a dead tree without the ospreys seeing it. Many ospreys build nests on power poles when there
aren’t enough dead trees around. Ospreys
mate for life, and mated pairs come back to the same nest year after year. If the pair has no nest, they both collect sticks
and grasses to build one. Sometimes they also
pick up plastic bags and fishing wire (which can accidentally kill the babies). Year after year, the ospreys make these nests
bigger and stronger. An osprey nest can weigh
up to 1,000 pounds, but it is not very deep inside and probably could not hold a person. Florida ospreys stay in Florida year round and lay
their eggs between December and February. (In
other places, ospreys migrate south each year.) 10-15
days before fledging (flying), young ospreys practice flapping their wings. They jump up and down on the nest until a wind gust
carries them over the edge. Osprey parents
will toss a fish near the fledging babies to encourage them to make that first leap.
WHY
AREN’T THERE MANY OSPREYS?
People
use fertilizers and other pollutants that can run off into the water and kill fish,
leaving less food for the ospreys. People also
cut down the dead trees that ospreys use for homes. Some
ospreys are killed with guns, even though it is against the law to hunt them. People also put dangerous chemicals into the
environment, like the pesticide, DDT. Fish
soak up DDT from the water they live in. When
ospreys eat these fish, the DDT can make their egg shells thin, so the eggs crack when the
mother sits on them. In the 1970’s,
people stopped using DDT. As a result, many
more osprey babies survive. Today, these fish
hawks are a “threatened species” (protected by law) in Florida. Modern Floridians try NOT to pollute the water, NOT
to shoot ospreys, and NOT to leave fishing line out for them to get caught in. A good way to help ospreys is to build nesting
platforms for them (tall poles that the ospreys can build their nests on). JEA, the electric, water, sewer utility in
Jacksonville, FL, has put up several platforms to provide safe nesting spots for ospreys.
RESOURCES
Poole, Allen. Ospreys: A Natural and Unnatural History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., 1989.
Terres, John K. The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of N. American Birds. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1987.Provided by the Pelotes Island Nature Preserve
http://pelotes.jea.com