Osprey Nest Webcam in Wilmington

One peep at this osprey live feed will tell you one thing and that is these majestic birds are really not the tidiest of nest builders. This couple, who have chosen Figure Eight Island in North Carolina as their preferred nesting site, appear to have just thrown a few twigs onto the, kindly provided, platform and got down to the business of laying and hatching eggs. In all honesty, they were probably too busy enjoying the panoramic view to be bothered with being house proud and who can blame them?

Ospreys are mid-sized raptors that live on a diet of fresh fish so this pair don’t have far to fly to be able to catch their daily calorie count. The Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway are right on their doorstep or in this case, better said, nest step. You can expect to see eggs in the nest during April and for the chicks to hatch around five weeks after they appear. It takes around six weeks for the chicks to mature enough to leave the nest so keep popping back to see them develop.

Once their parental duties are done, the ospreys, unlike many of the residents of Figure Eight Island who only spend summers there, will fly away for a good few months then return again in spring to start the process all over again. If you’re thinking of heading out to the island to view the birds through binoculars, you can’t. Figure Eight Island is private and unless you own a property there, you can’t get on it. These birds have picked a very select place to nest in and all we can say is, fair play to them for that. May they continue nesting there for many years to come.