Ospreys in the Bay Area

The last decade has seen a remarkably rapid expansion of Osprey nesting into San Francisco Bay tidelands. From a single nest reported in 1990 in Vallejo, numbers have risen to 27 nesting pairs in summer 2014. What's behind this increase? What conservation challenges do nesting Osprey face here, and how can we help them?

Tony Brake and Harvey Wilson have been monitoring nesting Osprey along San Francisco Bay since 2012. Both volunteers with Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, they are among the co-authors of a paper on Bay Area Ospreys that was published this fall in the journal Western Birds.