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See the osprey

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Soar into nature with a naturalist's guide to osprey, one of the region's most fascinating and beautiful signs of summer.

By Metro naturalist Elisabeth Neely

Turn your eyes to the skies over a nearby lake or river this spring and summer, and you’re likely to spot one of North America’s most striking and charismatic birds of prey – the osprey. With a wingspan of up to 5-1/2 feet, osprey (also called fish hawks) are impressively large, although smaller than bald eagles. Their dark backs, white bellies and handsome face stripes make them stand out.

The most dramatic thing about osprey, however, is their behavior. With patience and grace, osprey spend a good deal of the day fishing. An osprey will circle over a likely spot, hovering in one place when it spies a fish, and then plunge feet-first into the water with a splash. With keen eyesight and the help of sharp talons and barbed bumps on the pads of its feet, it grabs its slick prey. More than half the time, the osprey is successful and rises up from the water with a powerful thrust of its wings and a dripping fish in tow.

Migration

Many people notice osprey more in the summer, but don’t realize that unlike bald eagles, osprey cannot be seen here year-round. Osprey migrate south each fall; most Portland-area birds are gone by mid-October. Information from bird bands shows that many osprey winter in warm and sunny western Mexico. They return each year around St. Patrick’s Day, about the same time as another big bird that frequents our skies, the turkey vulture. To tell the two apart from a distance, look for the birds’ unique silhouettes. The osprey has a distinctive crook at its wrists that gives it a gull-like appearance and the shape of a flying letter “m.” The vulture holds its wingtips up in a “v” and tends to tilt from side to side rather tipsily in the breeze. It’s such a distinctive difference, a veteran hawk watcher can tell which species is which from two miles away.

Raising their young

Osprey tend to mate for life, but they don’t always spend winters with their mates. Instead they meet up on the way to or at their breeding grounds. Osprey often use the same large nest year after year, renovating it with fresh sticks each spring as part of their courtship, and making repairs to winter storm damage. In wilder areas, the osprey’s preferred nesting spot is at the top of a snag or broken-topped tree large enough to support the nest, but they’ll also happily use platforms built for them by understanding humans in more urban locales.

Each year, a pair of osprey raises one to four young. Each baby bird can eat about 6 pounds of fish daily, so the parents stay very busy in early summer trying to keep up with their offsprings’ appetites. As birds of prey, osprey are at the top of the river food chain, sustained almost entirely by fish that in turn depend on legions of tiny aquatic insects.

Making a comeback

Like the bald eagle, osprey numbers were decimated in the 1950s through the 1970s because of the widespread use of the pesticide DDT, habitat loss and shooting. Fortunately the banning of DDT and further protections have helped both raptors make a significant comeback, and in the Portland area, osprey now can be seen on almost any major river or lake.

In fact, if you like the outdoors, summertime would seem awfully empty without the sound of the osprey’s high-pitched whistling cry. Where can you go to enjoy them? One of my favorite spots is Oxbow Regional Park on the Sandy River, where you can watch at least one pair with their young every summer. The Clackamas River is home to many osprey, too. Closer to the city, you can view them at Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area in North Portland, and at Oaks Bottom along the Springwater on the Willamette. Boaters and drivers often speed by osprey families on the Willamette and Columbia, too. (All osprey-watchers, please take care not to disturb nesting birds.) For pure ambiance, pick the river of your choice and kick back. Nothing beats lying on a riverbank or in a lazily drifting boat with the sun on your face and watching the wing beats of an osprey or two spinning circles in the blue summer sky overhead. Enjoy!
Learn more about Oxbow Regional Park
Learn more about Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area

See for yourself

For more information about visiting Metro parks and natural areas with a naturalist, check out the Metro GreenScene... More