Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE FALCON-LIKE BIRDS

THE KITES, BUZZARDS, EAGLES, HAWKS, AND ALLIES

Nesting Osprey

The nesting site selected by the Fish-Hawk is extremely varied, although usually it is a tall tree, especially one that has the top or a large limb broken out by a storm. In some localities, as for example Plum Island, New York, where the birds are protected, they build the nest on low trees, on chance piles of rails, or even on the ground.”

The most picturesque nesting site of the Osprey I ever saw,”says Bendire,”was located in the midst of the American Falls of Snake River, Idaho. Right on the very brink of these, and about one third of the way across, the seething volume of water, confined here between frowning walls of basalt, was cleft in twain by a rocky obstruction which had so far withstood the ever eroding currents, and this was capped with a slender and fairly tapering column of rock rising directly out of the swirling and foaming whirlpool below.

On the top of this natural monument, whose apex appeared to me to be scarcely two feet wide, a pair of Ospreys had placed their nest and were rearing their young amidst the never ceasing roar of the falls directly below them.”The nest is ordinarily composed of large sticks, brush, and rubbish of various kinds, such as cornstalks, seaweeds, etc., and lined with cedar bark and other finer material.

At first it is of small size, but it is added to year after year, and finally assumes large dimensions, being sufficient in some cases to make several cart loads. The birds are brave in defense of the nest, flying at an intruder and uttering shrill screams. The number of eggs is usually two or three, rarely four, and they show great variety in both shape and color. Sometimes they are white and unmarked, occasionally an almost solid chocolate, but mainly they are a buffy white more or less heavily marked with various shades of brown.

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