Osprey

Welcome to this week’s Wildlife of the Week!

Our species this week is the Osprey!

Pandion haliaetus

This week’s Wildlife of the Week is the Osprey, a frequent sighting on the refuge this time of year, especially near any body of water where you will see them hunting for fish. They are distinctive-looking birds; their upperparts are a deep brown, while the breast is white, sometimes streaked with brown, and the underparts are pure white. The head is white with a dark mask across the eyes, reaching to the sides of the neck. Juvenile Osprey are similar looking except they have spots on their back and buffy shading on their chest.

They are large raptors with a wingspan of up to six feet and are excellent hunters, successfully catching prey at least 1 out of 4 dives. They possess a reversible outer toe that allows them to grasp with 2 front toes and 2 back toes. Most birds have 3 front toes and 1 back toe making grasping prey slightly more difficult.

Ospreys are migratory birds and unlike most of the waterfowl that winter at the refuge, ospreys show up here in March.

They nest and rear their young through the summer, returning to their winter homes in Florida and Central and South America in September. The photos below were taken while a mated pair was rebuilding their nest on the Osprey platform in White Springs. There are multiple Osprey nests on the refuge, the most conspicuous are on three consecutive electrical transmission towers south of the Highway 67 bridge over Flint Creek just east of the Visitor Center. (Photos by Tom Ress)