East End Osprey Population Remains Strong, Despite Nesting Success Trending Lower from Previous Years
Group for the East End Triennial Osprey Conservation Reveals 386 Fledglings from 385 Nesting Pairs
(Eastern Long Island, New York… September 2025) For more than 30 years, Group for the East End [thegroup.org] has led the conservation effort for the local osprey population. This year, the organization conducted its triennial monitoring across the East End. Group staff, expert birders, and volunteers visited approximately 500 nests in East Hampton, Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold, documenting 385 active nesting pairs, which produced 386 fledglings.
After several years of monitoring a thriving local population, the Group shifted its conservation efforts to hazard and conflict mitigation, conducting population monitoring every three years. The last monitoring year was in 2022, with a total of 353 active nests and 505 fledglings. While the overall count is slightly lower, the population is still strong.
There are several factors that could impact the number of fledglings recorded in this year’s survey. Predators like bald eagles, owls, and racoons in natural nesting areas could impact the population, as well as the significant weather events that occurred early in the breeding season this year. Strong storms may destroy nests entirely, or directly impact eggs and chicks when they are most vulnerable. In such events, ospreys may lay eggs a second time, though this often results in fewer eggs and late-season fledglings. Group staff and volunteers did see some evidence of this with the number of noticeably smaller chicks still in the nest during phase two of the monitoring survey.
“Ospreys are also great indicators of local water quality because their lives depend so much on the health of the waterways they live on,” shares Group assistant director of environmental education Jennifer Skilbred. “For example, if a local watershed is suffering from nitrogen pollution, which is a well-documented issue in some of our local waters, it can lead to lower oxygen levels, less clear water, harmful algal blooms, and ultimately, fewer fish for ospreys and their chicks.”
The Group’s osprey monitoring program allows the organization to track changes in the population and explore reasons for these changes. This data will be compiled and shared with New York State, which keeps track of the local population.
Despite the lower population numbers in this year’s survey, the Group is encouraged by the number of ospreys that are nesting across the East End, as well as the public interactions in the field.
“While teaching an outdoor education program with a Southampton kindergarten class, we set up our spotting scope to look at a nearby nest in a beautiful wetlands area,” Skilbred recalls. “The students were able to take turns looking through the spotting scope, watching the osprey parents bring fish back to the nest for the two young chicks. It was so special to teach the kids all about ospreys while they actually got to watch this wild family in action! It was a truly memorable experience both the children and adults will not soon forget.”
The public, which has been integral to the success of the osprey, can find answers to common questions, including what to do if an osprey nests on a home structure, a nest appears to be in danger, damaged osprey platforms, and more at thegroup.org/initiatives/osprey-conservation. They can also find live video feeds of osprey nests in Bridgehampton and Oyster Bay, and also follow along on social media for updates on different pairs at @groupfortheeastend.
2025 MONITORING DATA
Across the East End, Group staff and volunteers monitored 587 sites, 385 of which showed activity, producing 386 fledglings. In Riverhead, 18 nests were active, producing 21 fledglings. In Southampton, west of the Shinnecock Canal, 34 nests were active, producing 14 fledglings. East of the Shinnecock Canal in Southampton, the team monitored 86 active nests and counted 79 fledglings. In East Hampton, there were 59 active nests, with 69 fledglings counted. In Southold, there were 138 active nests, producing 156 fledglings. On Shelter Island, 50 nests were active and produced 47 fledglings. The survey does not include Shelter Island’s Mashomack Preserve, East Hampton’s Gardiner’s Island, or Southold’s Robins Island, Plum Island, or Fisher’s Island.
PSEG LONG ISLAND PARTNERSHIP
Tree nests are ideal and were far more common prior to the osprey's decline across the region. Nesting on utility poles has also become more common, though it can be very hazardous to the birds. Nesting osprey are in regular contact with water and their repeat visits back and forth to nesting sites with wet fish and sticks used in nest construction can lead to contact with electrified lines that can spark fires and lead to the electrocution of both adults and young, which are unable to fly. PSEG Long Island has become an important conservation partner by working with the Group and local community members to safely remove dangerously located nests and provide far safer elevated nesting platforms, in areas where the birds demonstrate a strong interest in establishing a nest. PSEG Long Island's osprey conservation team has also pioneered a physical deterrent that can be placed over dangerous electrical equipment- keeping the birds safe and discouraging new nests in areas that are dangerous to the ospreys.
REASONS FOR POPULATION INCREASE
A significant reason for the robust increase can be traced to changes in fishing regulations over the past decade, specifically regarding the limit on the amount of “bunker” or menhaden, a smaller fish that is predated on by larger fish, such as bluefish and striped bass. The regulations were put in place to help increase the local fishing economy – industrial and recreational, however an indirect but beneficial result has been an increasingly available food source for the region's osprey population, which maintains a diet of roughly 99% fish.
EAST END OSPREY HISTORY
The decline of the osprey in the 1950s through 70s was caused by DDT-induced eggshell thinning, greatly reducing the reproductive efforts of osprey and hurtling the iconic “fish hawk” on a path to local extinction or extirpation from New York State. In 1976, the species was listed as endangered in the State. With the ban of DDT in 1972, the population slowly began to rebound in the early 1980s. In 1983, the osprey was downgraded to “threatened.” By 1995, there were 230 breeding pairs on Long Island and four years later osprey was downgraded again to “Species of Special Concern,” which is its current status.
In addition to the threat of pesticides, wetland destruction also carved away the osprey’s nesting habitat at an accelerating pace. As the osprey population increases, many birds have begun to nest naturally in trees while others find themselves on docks, chimneys, light, and utility poles. Nesting in these areas can lead to conflicts with humans or injuries to the birds.
