An osprey is a bird of prey, like an eagle. They mostly eat fish, making them carnivorous. Ospreys catch food by flying above the water
looking for fish. When they spot a fish,
they dive head first. Then at the last
second, they pull up and catch the fish with their talons.
This is a picture of Matt and Noah, our guest researchers.
Click below to watch a professional video of Ospreys catching fish:
Ospreys have a wing span of 5-6 feet, and their body is
21-23 inches long. They weigh about 3 to 4 ½
pounds. You call tell the difference
between an eagle and an osprey by looking for the white belly, unique to the
osprey.
Ospreys make nests near water on tall things such as poles. They usually lay three eggs. Juvenile ospreys fledge the nest at about 7-8
weeks. Ospreys migrate in the late fall. The father leaves the nest first. Then the mother leaves the nest. The juveniles leave the nest last. They all migrate alone. The trip is very dangerous and some die. This is often due to starvation and
weather. Ospreys can live up to 30
years.
I completed this project to help study how making nesting
poles for Ospreys and not using DDT effected the osprey population and to make
sure they are still doing okay. DDT is a
chemical that was used to spray crops from 1950-1980. DDT softened the shells of several birds of prey, engaging
their species.
We got our information by reading the book, Code Name KC: A True Account of One Osprey and reading the articles on National Geographic. http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birds/osprey/
1 comment:
Thanks for the info, Grey! When I firs saw an osprey (at my parents' house in the Adirondacks) I thought it was a juvenile eagle (because the coloring seemed a bit wrong for an eagle) but when I looked it up, I realized it was an osprey! It is interesting to me that ospreys and eagles can live and fish in both freshwater and saltwater environments - usually I think of animals as favoring one or the other.
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