Signup for our Newsletter

Receive our latest updates by signing up for our newsletter!

Please leave this field empty
  •  

Ospreys in Essex County

Since 2008, Greenbelt has focused on Osprey conservation by building and maintaining nesting platforms, collecting data, educating the public and collaborating on research to advance Osprey conservation.
Watch a video on Osprey in Essex County by Triton High School student Sophie Latham.
Greenbelt reports on the status of osprey breeding each year in Essex County. You can also view this Map of Known Osprey Nests in Essex County.

Osprey Research and Tracking

Tracking Flow

In 2013 and 2014, Greenbelt collaborated with leading Osprey researcher Dr. Rob Bierregaard to study Osprey migration using small solar-powered transmitters. In total, four transmitters have been deployed but only one of those Osprey survived - a male named Flow, hatched in 2014. Flow migrated to Cuba in 2014 and stayed there until spring 2016, when he came back to Essex County and then returned to Cuba in fall 2016. In the fall of 2017, after spending his summer in New England, Flow's journey ended on his migration south, where predation was the likely cause of his death in Maryland. View his tracks in the map below.  

Flow_Migration_Map.jpg

More About Ospreys

IDENTIFICATION

  • Wingspan of up to six feet
  • Approximately 2 feet long
  • Plumage is mostly dark brown on top and white underneath
  • Black, sharply curved bill
  • Yellow eyes
  • White crown and head, with a dark band extending back from its eyes
  • Female larger than male
  • 4 toes with long black talons
  • Female has speckled brown necklace across upper chest
raptor_identification.jpg

Habitat

Nests are made of branches, shoreline debris, and other organic materials. Nests are located near water on structures like dead snags, utility poles, and man-made nesting platforms

Feeding

  • Feed on medium sized fish
  • Hunt by flying high above relatively shallow water to search for schooling fish. Once prey is spotted, Osprey will hover beating its wings, then quickly dive down and sink its talons into the water and into the fish.
  • Once in the air, the osprey will position the fish so it’s facing forward, allowing for it to be more aerodynamic for transport back to the nest.

Breeding

  • Begin mating at 3 years old and usually keep the same mate for life
  • Return each year to the same area it was born
  • MARCH/APRIL- Courtship and nest building begins
  • APRIL/MAY-Eggs, 2-4, are laid between mid-April late May and incubated for approximately 40 days
  • JUNE-Nestlings are brooded and fed fish. They begin to resemble adults, but have orange eyes rather than yellow.
  • JULY-The young begin to fly approximately 55 days after hatching and stay with their families through July while they learn to fish.
  • AUGUST/SEPTEMBER-Birds begin to migrate south in late August early September.

Continuing the Conservation Effort

Your support helps fund and continue our Osprey Conservation effort.

Make a Donation

Make Donation as Commemorative Gift

Interested in Osprey Monitoring?

Greenbelt is looking for volunteers to be monitors in our Osprey Watch program.

Learn More

Essex County Greenbelt 

82 Eastern Avenue
PO Box 1026
Essex, MA 01929
e. Contact by Email
p. 978.768.7241

Ways to Help

Greenbelt thanks the photographers whose work is featured prominently on our website: Jerry Monkman, Dorothy Monnelly, Adrian Scholes, David Alden St. Pierre & Neil Ungerleider