Nest #4440

Adult Arrival

Look for 2 adults on the nest. The adult pair will show pair bonding behaviors such as vocalizations, aerial sky dances, and the male feeding the female fish. You may see the pair copulating, which typically begins 14 days before laying eggs.

Incubation Initiation

Females will lay 1 - 4 eggs at a rate of one egg every 1 - 2 days. After laying, incubation starts. Look for adults taking turns sitting low in the nest incubating eggs. The incubation period can last 35 - 43 days.

Clutch Hatching

Chicks hatch ~39 days after incubation begins. Look for adults bringing food to the nest and making "head bows" into the center. Chicks typically can't be seen until they are 2 - 3 weeks old, so feeding behavior is the only way to know chicks are there.

Nestling Count

Around 4 weeks after hatching, look for the heads of chicks to show over the rim of the nest, particularly when adults bring food to the nest. Other times they lie flat and are harder to see. Count the number of chicks in the nest before they learn to fly

Fledgling Count

Chicks begin flying around 7 - 8 weeks old, and are still fed by the adults. Count the number of chicks who have successfully fledged the nest and are observed flying.

Chick Last Observed

4 - 10 weeks after fledging, chicks begin leaving the nest area to migrate south, once they have learned to fly and feed themselves. Record the date that the last chick left the nest.

Nest Failure

Look for signs of nest failure like adult abandonment, adults no longer incubating eggs or feeding young.

Previous Next

Adult arrival		Nestlings
Nest Occupied	No	Fledglings
Nest Active		First chick fledging
Egg laying		Chicks last observed
Incubation initiation		Nest failure
Clutch hatching		Reason for nest failure

Adult arrival	01/05/2016	Nestlings	0
Nest Occupied	Yes	Fledglings
Nest Active		First chick fledging
Egg laying		Chicks last observed	02/27/2015
Incubation initiation		Nest failure
Clutch hatching		Reason for nest failure

Photos of this nest

Nesting Diaries

01/05/2016 by mudskipper

Both parents at the nest; we think we may have heard a chick calling. One bird was provisioning while the other remained on the nest.

03/01/2015 by mudskipper

Photos posted on the web of the Sugarloaf Key Bat Tower from 2011 show no nest on the top (http://www.lordwhimsy.com/bat-tower-sugarloaf-key-fl). I visited the tower in Feb 2014 and posted the following on TripAdvisor: " The "angry bird" at the top is an Osprey sitting in one of the largest, easily accessible Osprey nests you're going to find, anywhere. When we visited (Feb. 15, 2014), one adult was on the nest with a loud, vocalizing chick who popped its fuzzy head up now and then. The other parent flew in and dropped off a fish and then took off again. " The earlier Osprey Watch record from 2013 by Ben Wurst shows it occupied then. None of the other images on Google indicate a nest except one from May 2013 (http://gracegothealthy.com/tag/weekend/). It appears that nesting began in either 2012 or 2013, which is surprising given the size of the nest in 2014.

	2015 - mudskipper	2013 - Ben Wurst
aAdult Arrival	1/5/16
aOccupied	Yes	No
aActive
bEgg Laying
bIncubation Initiation
cClutch Hatching
dNestlings	0
eFledglings
eFirst Chick Fledging
fChicks Last Observed	2/27/15
xNest Failure
xReason For Nest Failure