The Osprey is a large raptor built for one job: catching fish. It is dark brown above and white below, with a white head crossed by a dark stripe through the eye. In flight its long, narrow wings bend at the wrist into a shallow M, with a dark patch at each bend.
Fish make up nearly its whole diet. An Osprey cruises low over open water, hovers when it spots a target, then drops and hits the water feet first to seize the fish in its talons. Bald Eagles sometimes chase Ospreys in flight to steal the catch.
Pairs build bulky stick nests on the dead or broken tops of tall trees, and more and more often on utility poles, pilings, channel markers and cell towers, usually within a couple of miles of water with fish. Both adults build, and they reuse and add to the nest year after year until it becomes huge. Ospreys are strongly migratory and leave Oregon for the winter.
The species declined badly from DDT poisoning in the mid-1900s and recovered after the pesticide was banned in 1972. Oregon named it the official state raptor in 2017. Look for Ospreys over larger rivers, lakes and reservoirs in the warmer months.
How to identify it
A large raptor about 21 to 23 inches long with a 5 to 6 foot wingspan, brown above and clean white below, with a white head and a dark stripe through the eye. In flight the long wings show a distinct crook and dark wrist patches. Young birds have pale scaling on the back.
Look-alikes
Bald Eagles are bigger and broader winged. Adults have a white head and tail on a dark body, and young eagles are dark brown with blotchy white, never the Osprey's clean white underparts and eye stripe.
Habitat
Lakes, reservoirs and larger rivers with plenty of fish, nesting on tall snags, broken-topped trees and human-made platforms near water. It breeds across Oregon except the dry, treeless southeast.
Sightings in the forest
215 research-grade sightings in Mt. Hood National Forest on iNaturalist, most recently on October 1, 2026. See them on iNaturalist →