Launching in 2025, the Nantucket Osprey Watch Program is an exciting new community science effort led by the Linda Loring Nature Foundation to study and support the island’s Osprey population. This project relies on the help of community members to observe, document, and raise awareness for the Osprey that nest across Nantucket.

Explore Nantucket’s Osprey Nest Map

Want to Get Involved?

We invite volunteers to join us by “adopting a nest” and assisting with monitoring efforts. Reports will be submitted through the online form below, making it easy for volunteers to share their observations once a week throughout the breeding season.

By working together, we can ensure a thriving future for Nantucket’s Ospreys while providing valuable scientific data to guide conservation efforts.

Informational Q&A Session about the Osprey Watch Program for 2025

Originally recorded April 2nd, 2025

Monitoring Guidelines

  • Nests should be monitored weekly for 15 minutes.

  • If you have a great photo to share, you can include it in the Nest Check form.

  • April, May and June are high-priority months for nest monitoring, when activity is at its peak.

  • For more in-depth monitoring guidelines, click here.

Identification

• Wingspan of up to six feet

• Approximately 2 feet long

• Plumage is mostly dark brown on top and white underneath

• Black, sharply curved bill

• White crown and head, a dark band extending back from its eyes

• Yellow eyes

• Female larger than male

• Female has speckled brown necklace across upper chest

• 4 toes with long black talons

Habitat

Nests are made of branches, shoreline debris, and other organic (and sometimes inorganic) materials. Nests are naturally located near water on live trees and dead snags, but on Nantucket, nests are exclusively found on manmade structures like nesting platforms, viewing stands, and roofs.

History of Osprey on Nantucket

Ospreys have made a remarkable comeback since the ban of DDT, but there is still much to learn about their nesting success and habitat use on Nantucket. In North America, Ospreys occur in all 50 states, but their populations plummeted between the 1950s and 1970s due to the unregulated use of pesticides like DDT. These chemicals caused eggshell thinning, leading to widespread nest failures. Thanks to new regulations on pesticide use in the 1970s, Osprey populations began to rebound across the continent—including here on Nantucket.

The island’s first recorded Osprey nest was in 1979, and the population has grown every year since. Thanks to the work of researchers—especially the Maria Mitchell Association’s Dr. Robert Kennedy—we have valuable data on Nantucket’s Osprey population from 1979 to 2015. Early research shows that Nantucket Ospreys initially nested only on man-made platforms. However, they’ve now expanded to a variety of nesting sites, including old trees (their original preference), rooftops, radio tower poles, and even beach dunes.

FAQs

  • To report a new nest, head to llnf.org/nantucket-osprey-watch and fill out our New Nest form.

  • If you are at the site of the nest, you can use the Maps app on your phone and drop a pin at your location. This will provide you with coordinates which you can input into the New Nest form.

    If you took a picture of the nest you are reporting, often the Location feature is enabled on your phone, and will allow you to see the location of the photo taken.

    Alternatively, you can do your best to describe the location of the nest, however we strongly advise that you use one of the methods mentioned above.

  • Yes! All data is valuable data, even if there is no activity at the nest. These reports let us know what nests are/are not active.

  • Yes. We will always welcome data for a nest.

    Be sure you know the nest number and/or exact location of the nest you are reporting.

  • It’s okay if you don’t know the exact time/duration of your observation of a nest!

    Be as accurate as you can/give your best guess.

  • If there isn’t a drop-down option available in the Bird/Nest Activity question on the Nest Check form that best describes your nest’s situation, you have the option of clicking Other and typing in your answer.

    There is also a section for Additional Observations or Comments where you can add any additional information about your nest.

  • The Osprey map is updated weekly, with potential for more frequent updates during the Osprey’s peak season.