Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)

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Abstract:

Arguably North America’s best-studied bird of prey and one of its most admired, the osprey is the continent’s only raptor that eats almost exclusively live fish. Ospreys have colonized a broad array of habitats throughout North America. All but southernmost populations are migratory. Historically ospreys built their nests atop trees, rocky cliffs and promontories, and—on a few islands free of mammalian predators—even on the ground. While many continue to use such natural sites, many have shifted to artificial sites such as channel markers, many types of towers, and nesting poles erected specifically for the species. Predation, loss of trees, and development of shorelines have been driving forces behind the shift to artificial sites. North American ospreys gained increased recognition during the 1950s–1970s because populations in several key regions crashed. Osprey studies provided key evidence in court to help block continued use of persistent pesticides, and osprey populations recovered rapidly thereafter. Although small pockets of contamination remain, apparently mostly on wintering grounds, by the year 2000 many U.S. and Canadian populations were approaching historical numbers, boosted by a cleaner environment, increasingly available artificial nest sites, and the bird’s ability to tolerate human activity near its nests. Concern for populations impacted by pesticides spawned many studies during the 1970s and 1980s on various aspects of osprey life history, and these have continued almost undiminished. This species account, though leaning on those studies, emphasizes studies since then too, including studies about migration (as well as movements outside the breeding season), behavior on the nest, molecular genetics, foraging and dietary preferences in the post-fledgling period, assessment of contaminants in western populations, sibling aggression among nestlings, colonial nesting, lifetime reproduction, nestling growth, and ecology and population dynamics of Palearctic ospreys.

Notes:

Location: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/683/; a note to that effect is in ELECTRONIC FILES - Zoology. Also note that the original 2002 printing by BNA should be located in the Wildlife Bureau, on reference shelves, in the black-boxed BNA collection of monographs.

Recommended Citation:
Poole, Alan F., Rob O. Bierregaard and Mark S. Martell. 2002. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/683 doi:10.2173/bna.683.

SWAP (2/19/2016) Citation:
Poole AF, Bierregaard RO, Martell MS. 2002. Osprey (Pandion haliaetus). The Birds of North America Online. (A Poole, editor). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology. [accessed 2015 Jun 01]. http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/683/.

From BNA: "The purpose of BNA being online is so that the content can be continually updated; therefore we discourage you from printing static copies, in case the information changes."