Identifying the Male vs Female and Juvenile vs Adult Osprey

When ever we go visit the Osprey and talk to people there, they often ask how we know it was the mom who was killed, how we know that was a chick we just saw, and so on.

So let us begin with the lesson:

Adult Vs Juvenile:

This is a constant moving target.  At first, it is obvious to anyone:

The adults are bigger :-)

and the kids are fuzzy...

And the adults can fly.

When the kids get a bit bigger, it is still obvious.  The feathers are not all in place.

Then the kids start "flying"...and things get harder. Is the picture above an adult or a juvenile?  For what I can see, there are a few indicators:

• Context:  Spending enough time watching the birds gives alot of hints.  And specifically, watching this bird on this day, they only hopped from side to side of the nest.  They never got any more than a second of air time.
• The under wing white feathers:  Note how this bird has some uneven light feathers in the "wing root" area closest to the body.
• Beak size:  It seems one of the last parts to grow on the Osprey is the beak.
• Eye Color:  As you can see from the examples below, the adults have yellow eyes, and the youngsters have red/orange eyes.

So this is a Juvenile.

The adult is on the left.....

Now what about these shots?

If you look at the wings, the adult (sitting) in the second shot, is more uniformly brown while the Juvenile in the top shot is more mottled.

Based n the eye clor and motled wings, this is a juvenile for sure.

Male or Female:

This is one of the biggest challenges and I will publish some tips in the upcoming days.