Ospreys to the south are suffering. We’re keeping an eye on the situation in Connecticut.

Menhaden are a dietary staple of Ospreys that live along the coast. Photo courtesy of William Canosa.

August 1, 2025 — You may have heard the news that Ospreys south of Connecticut, in Virginia especially, are not doing well. We have not seen anything similar in Connecticut but concern is growing, so we like to share what we know.

Osprey pairs in the salt water areas of Chesapeake Bay have been failing to produce young birds, averaging around 0.5 young per nest, which is well below the estimate of 1.15 per nest needed to sustain the population. It is unquestionably a dire situation there.

Menhaden are a primary food for Ospreys. Many scientists and conservationists say the commercial menhaden fishing industry has been catching too many fish and is the cause of the population collapse. However, others, including the fishing industry, put the blame elsewhere, on pollution and climate change, for example. Research and debate are ongoing.

By contrast, the situation in the tidal fresh-water parts of the Chesapeake is nowhere near as dire. Ospreys there have averaged 1.36 birds per nest.

In Connecticut, the Osprey population has been highly successful, as documented by the hundreds of volunteers for Connecticut Audubon’s Osprey Nation monitoring program. The program started in 2014 and has shown that Osprey numbers in the state have slowly increased.

However because it’s early August and many Ospreys are still on their nests, we don’t yet know what the 2025 season will look like here.

There is some indication that there might be fewer successful nests and fledglings. But we are waiting for reports from Osprey Nation volunteers, and until we receive them we won’t know for sure. The Osprey Nation page will take you to the current nest map, our Osprey Cam from Milford Point, and more.

If the numbers are down, we might not know why — at least for a while. One possibility would be an insufficient amount of food, particularly menhaden (although there hasn’t been commercial fishing for menhaden in Long Island Sound in at least 20 years). The unusually hot weather in June would also be a possible cause. Wildlife populations fluctuate naturally, so 2025 might just be a down year. It might be all those together, plus other factors.

Ospreys were on the brink of extinction in the 1960s and ’70s because of DDT but have made a major recovery. Osprey populations in the south are again falling, perhaps because there’s not enough fish for them to eat. Photo by William Canosa.

We looked at the situation to the south, in a preliminary way, in our 2024 Osprey Nation report, and will examine it again in this year’s report. We typically publish the Osprey Nation report in November.

We will also take an in-depth look at the Osprey situation in the 2025 Connecticut State of the Birds report. Filmmaker and Osprey expert Jacob Steinberg has agreed to write the article, and Alan Poole, Ph.D., one of the world’s foremost experts on Ospreys, has offered his help and advice. We expect to publish Connecticut State of the Birds around Thanksgiving. 

Our job now is to get solid information and see where it leads us. We are counting on the volunteer Osprey monitors to continue checking nests and submitting data.

Scott Kruitbosch, Connecticut Audubon’s Osprey Nation coordinator, sent this message to the Osprey volunteers this week: “Osprey are HUGELY SUCCESSFUL in Connecticut! It’s wonderful. What was a species decimated and clinging to life now boasts ~1,100 nests in our state alone. What a dream come true! You are all doing wonderful things to further the process. And with so many [Osprey] there will be failures, too. That’s okay. We monitor, learn, adjust and adapt, fine tune advocacy and conservation efforts, and continue the climb.”