Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) Ospreys on Nest in Jamaica Bay, with JFK International Airport in Background Photograph by Don Riepe, August 2001 Courtesy of Don Riepe, National Park Service The New York Public Library provides the information contained on this website, including reproductions of certain items from other institutions or individuals, for personal or research use only. Contact Don Riepe for additional guidelines regarding use and reproduction of this image.

These Ospreys are nesting on one of seven platforms erected for their use at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Although five nests were occupied during 2002, just three were visible to visitors to the enormous federal refuge, which encompasses 9,000 acres of the Bay, marshlands, islands and mudflats, ponds, beaches, natural gardens, and uplands. The proximity of the enormous airport evidently does not intimidate the approximately 325 species of resident and visiting birds recorded at the Refuge.

Ospreys suffered near-disastrous population declines beginning in the 1940s because the widely used toxic insecticide DDT contaminated the fish that the birds fed on, and so weakened the eggshells that most did not hatch. DDT was banned in 1972, and the population of the magnificent hawks has slowly increased,monitored and aided by governmental and environmental gencies.





Check out the sighting log to record your interaction with some of the native New York City wildlife, such as the Osprey, featured in Urban Neighbors. You may also browse the sighting log by animal, borough, park or natural area, and/or habitat to view a sighting you have submitted or to read others’ observations.