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#403462 03/29/11 08:18 AM
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How common is it for Ospry to eat other birds? We have one that is on our pier everyday. We watched him feeding a few days ago and assumed he had a fish. Then we found remains of a bird that he had been eating. For the past week we can hear screams of birds in the yard as they are being attacked. Really awful sound. Any info on our "rouge" Ospry appreciated.


R.B. Mernitz
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Osprey are birds of prey, they will eat fish,small birds and rodents. They will eat any thing they can catch, Fish is there main diet but will take other prey if the opportunity presents it's self. The Osprey you are watching is just doing what nature intended.


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A.C.G.C.
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I worked for US Fish &Wildlife for ten years, and Natl Zoo. We kept ospreys and they would die before eating birds, rodents, and a special bird of prey diet. We kept eagles, hawks, and owls (many more birds that would bore you). But, we could never get ospreys to eat anything but fish.
Maybe you have inventive ospreys, and many species shift gears in a pinch. Our Chesapeake canvasbacks used to only eat grasses on the upper Susquehanna in winter, but when we built a big hydro electric dam the grasses died. Now they hang around shallows near my (for sale) house and eat small fish and crustaceans.
I suspect you have owls and/or hawks, also around, and they or cats (wild or otherwise) are eating the birds.
We have owls and hawks down by Caribbean Villas where I live (when I'm not trying to sell this $&@,? house). When they are around, I keep my cats in!
In Annapolis we have sightings of hawks attacking and killing cats and small dogs...but never ospreys. That's why us nerdy biologists consider ospreys indicator species...they eat fish. If the fish are poisoned or sick, the ospreys disappear. It happened for a while in the US. With care about mercury and farm fertilizer run off, the ospreys are now doing great!

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Oh, by the way, L&T, ospreys always carry their food away to high places to eat them or feed them to their young.
Maybe, your dock is a high place, but I doubt it. I've never seen an osprey on a dock. I've seen them on top of sailboat masts by docks, but never eating.

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Thanks for the info. Our pier has a pergola and that is where he usually sits to fish or feed, so it is higher. We watched him feeding with our binoculars the other day and when he left we found the bird remains a wing and some well picked over bones. He appears to be a juvenile. We had a nest with three but they all left the nest several weeks ago. We have some lovely Mayan Orioles so hope they don't go after those.


R.B. Mernitz
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Ospreys on Ambergris eat fish they fly out to the shallow reef crest and nab a snapper then fly to a coconut tree top or sometimes the Palapa roof top on the end of a dock and eat it.
I see it almost every morning. got a nesting pair behind me I watch close.
its always fish, however the Black Hawk on the island eats everything from mice to snakes he also like to eat from the top of the palapa roof or tall coconut tree and then throws down smelly remains like crab, mice or snake remains. I haven't seen him eat another bird but he sure makes them nervous.


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GwenA #403544 03/29/11 09:39 PM
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Originally Posted by GwenA
I worked for US Fish &Wildlife for ten years, and Natl Zoo. We kept ospreys and they would die before eating birds, rodents, and a special bird of prey diet. We kept eagles, hawks, and owls (many more birds that would bore you). But, we could never get ospreys to eat anything but fish.
Maybe you have inventive ospreys, and many species shift gears in a pinch. Our Chesapeake canvasbacks used to only eat grasses on the upper Susquehanna in winter, but when we built a big hydro electric dam the grasses died. Now they hang around shallows near my (for sale) house and eat small fish and crustaceans.
I suspect you have owls and/or hawks, also around, and they or cats (wild or otherwise) are eating the birds.
We have owls and hawks down by Caribbean Villas where I live (when I'm not trying to sell this $&@,? house). When they are around, I keep my cats in!
In Annapolis we have sightings of hawks attacking and killing cats and small dogs...but never ospreys. That's why us nerdy biologists consider ospreys indicator species...they eat fish. If the fish are poisoned or sick, the ospreys disappear. It happened for a while in the US. With care about mercury and farm fertilizer run off, the ospreys are now doing great!


I was just quoting this I found on the web,
"Diet:
The vast majority of the Osprey's diet is fish, typically 5-16 inches in size. Only occasionally, when fish aren't available, will the Osprey eat small mammals, birds, or reptiles. However, the Osprey is highly specialized for eating fish and does not stray from this diet unless necessary. When it catches a fish, the Osprey usually flies with it held headfirst."

sorry for the confusion.


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I have never seen the osprey eat anything other than fish. I have watched the black hawk eat an oriole. There recently was a falcon on the island, maybe he's still around and enjoys the oceanfront dining of your pergola?

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I'll see if I can get a pic of our little "cannibal". He shows up quite often. JZB, can you recommend a good "red" for his pergola dining?
Have seen the hawk around too. He hangs out on the fence by RCR as you come up our road.


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If your cannibal is a juvenile osprey that just left the nest, he or she could be a pretty inept hunter. Usually before leaving they are fed by the parents to be very fat and heavy to give them a chance while they aren't very good at getting food. It could be opportunistically finding leftovers from the hawks and owls, because it's hungry!

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