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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re talking about ospreys. Be sure to subscribe to keep up with our spree of videos, and thank you to Chamong Xiong for today’s request! For most bird species only certain people will see and hear certain birds in certain areas. This is because most birds don’t occur in all areas of the world, but ospreys are an exception. These birds of prey are considered cosmopolitan because they can be found on every continent (except Antarctica, but is that really even surprising?). They’re able to live in a variety of habitats, however, they are limited by available nest sites and their diets. That’s because ospreys almost exclusively eat fish. In fact, over time they’ve developed to have much longer legs than other birds of prey. Ospreys were once grouped in with hawks and even had other common names such as river hawks, fish hawks, and sea hawks, but now ospreys are classified in their own family in which there are one or two species depending on who you ask.

Where these birds live can determine whether or not they migrate. Some populations of ospreys stay in one place year round while others will migrate to breeding grounds in the north during the summer. The ones that migrate will often fly right over the homes of their non-migrating relatives - I guess nobody told the migrating ospreys they don’t have to fly so much. Well, that might not 100% true. During their first year of life, some ospreys will actually stay behind while the rest of their population flies north. If they left, these youngsters would likely have a low success rate if they tried breeding, so they just stay behind. It’s not lazy, it’s economical. For the ospreys that are seeking love, they are usually looking for their previous partner as ospreys are considered monogamous birds.

A male will perform aerial acts to attract his mate, and together they’ll add on their nest from previous years, or start a new one if they haven’t started one already. By the time an osprey nest has reached its full potential, it’s big enough for a person to sit in it, and oftentimes other smaller birds like sparrows will have burrowed into the nest material and made nests of their own. It’s like nestception. A female osprey will lay about three eggs over the course of a week and as she incubates them the male will bring her food.

Ospreys hunt by flying over a body of shallow water and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They’ll dive straight down and only at the last minute position themselves for a return to the air after trying to catch their meal. Sometimes bald eagles will be jerks and try to steal an osprey’s meal or even try to eat the osprey, but for the most part adult ospreys don’t have to worry about predators. Unless they’re on the Nile. Then Nile crocodiles might eat them. Nestlings are more susceptible to predation in the form of eagles, owls, and even raccoons if the little rascals get a chance to climb up to an osprey’s nest. This is often why osprey nests are built on islands or over the water.

The baby ospreys leave the nest about two months after hatching, though they’ll return for a few weeks to beg for food. They reach adult size relatively quickly taking less than two years to grow in their adult feathers. Female ospreys have larger wingspans and usually weigh more than males, though they average three and a half pounds (1,600 grams) and five foot (152 centimeter) wingspans. If they can avoid predators and other threats, they may live to be more than two decades old in the wild.

For more facts on ospreys, check out the links in the description. Give a thumbs up if you learned something new today, and thank you for watching Animal Fact Files.