Female Osprey Defends Nest Site From Intruder – Feb 28, 2018

2,814 views · Published 28 February 2018 · 2:00 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: Cornell Lab Bird Cams · 2018 · Pets & Animals

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When there are a lot of Ospreys looking for a nest site at the beginning of the breeding season, it's critical to defend what is yours. Here, the female Osprey protects her nest site from an intruder with loud guard calls before chasing away the unwanted guest after it approaches the nest too closely. 

Watch live at www.allaboutbirds.org/savannahospreys

During the Fall of 2014, a pair of Great Horned Owls began frequenting this recently abandoned Bald Eagle nest adjacent to a protected, nutrient-rich salt marsh along the Georgia coast. The nest sits nearly 80′ above one of the six Audubon International Certified golf courses at The Landings, on Skidaway Island, near Savannah, Georgia. Over the course of 2015 and 2016, a pair of owls successfully fledged four owlets from the site, but they did not return to breed in 2017. 

Instead, a pair of Ospreys began renovating the nest and committed to breeding in the same site for 2017.
Ospreys are consummate fishing birds, and this pair fishes primarily from the nearby salt marsh, ponds, and waterways. They use their 6–7 foot wingspans to soar above the water, looking for fish, then diving as deep as 3 feet for shallow-swimming prey. Adult Ospreys usually weigh 3–4 pounds, and they can carry prey up to 50 percent of their own weight. Ospreys can live up to 25 years, and they typically lay 1–4 eggs in a clutch.

Most Osprey pairs are monogamous, staying paired across seasons and beginning nesting soon after each returns from a long migration. Both sexes incubate the eggs. The female sits for the majority of the time (including throughout the night) while the male provisions her with fish. After the eggs hatch, the male continues to bring fish to the nest; the female exclusively broods the young and dissects their meals for about a month after hatching. Later on, when the chicks no longer require her protection and their appetite for fish increases, she will leave the nest and go fishing.
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