Become an OspreyWatcher – It's fun and easy - The Center for Conservation Biology

Four generations of W&M graduate students collaborate on osprey paper

March 30, 2024

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April 2, 2024

Published by Center for Conservation Biology at March 30, 2024

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Every day is an adventure with a brood of osprey. The tireless foraging of the male, the care of the female and the growing confidence of the brood. Each season is different and each pair has its own personality. Photo by Bryan Watts.

By: Bryan Watts
4/2/24

CCB is thrilled to announce the launch of OspreyWatch 2.0. With support from conservationists Briscoe and Kenan White and innovative programmer Jim Verhagen (CEO of the Cyrus Company), the new application has been fully upgraded with both the citizen and professional scientist in mind. The site has high functionality with a simple design. New features include training videos, nest mapping and monitoring on any digital platform including mobile, quick and streamlined data entry, tracking of volunteer hours, permanent logs of personal observations, summary statistics on nesting performance and export of data tables on a range of spatial scales and in a variety of formats. The redesigned application is ideal for federal and state agencies, corporations and NGOs that want a seamless experience from data entry to data export. The new site will provide a solid platform for global osprey monitoring moving forward.

Every day is an adventure with a brood of osprey. The tireless foraging of the male, the care of the female and the growing confidence of the brood. Each season is different and each pair has its own personality. Photo by Bryan Watts.

The Center for Conservation Biology initially launched OspreyWatch in 2012 to create an online global community making observations of breeding osprey. Our goal on a local scale is to connect people to the breeding pairs around them, to have them engage in the daily lives of these birds and to learn more about their breeding ecology and conservation challenges. Observers have included school groups, master naturalist chapters, bird clubs, homeowners, government agencies and research organizations. Our intent on a larger scale is to harness the power of many observers on a large enough spatial scale to be useful in addressing three of the most pressing issues facing aquatic ecosystems, including global climate change, depletion of fish stocks, and environmental contaminants.

Young osprey cannot maintain their own body temperature until two weeks of age and so must be brooded by an adult. The young grow rapidly and typically take their first flights between 7 and 8 weeks of age. Photo by Andy Glass.

A 7-week-old osprey in the nest. Birds of this age are active and nearing their transition to flight and within weeks of independence. This period of transition is a time of risk for a long list of hazards. Photo by Bryan Watts.

Osprey are one of very few truly global sentinels for aquatic health. They feed almost exclusively on live fish throughout their entire life cycle. They are a top consumer within aquatic ecosystems and are very sensitive to both overfishing and environmental contaminants. Nearly all populations breed in the northern latitudes and winter in the southern latitudes, effectively linking the aquatic health of the hemispheres. Their breeding season in the north is highly seasonal making them an effective barometer of climate change.