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Articles

Vol. 56 No. 3 (2025)

EXPANSION OF THE BREEDING POPULATION OF THE OSPREY ON SAN FRANCISCO BAY

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21199/WB56.3.3
Submitted
February 16, 2026
Published
August 1, 2025

Abstract

The first known nesting of the Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) on San Francisco Bay was in 1990 along the Mare Island Strait in Vallejo. After 2003, the nesting population at Mare Island Strait began to grow, but nesting in San Francisco Bay south of there remained sparse. A survey in 2013 detected 26 territorial pairs about the Bay, most (65%) still concentrated along the Mare Island Strait, but a few Ospreys were found nesting to the south in Contra Costa, Alameda and San Francisco counties. Here I report the results of surveys from 2014 to 2024, which show a continued southward expansion, the greatest concentration of nests now along the Richmond shoreline in Contra Costa County, and a few nests in South San Francisco Bay. In 2024 the number of territorial pairs reached 70. The overall productivity from 2013 to 2024 of 1.40 juveniles fledged per territorial pair appears sufficient to sustain growth of the population. Of the 70 nests active in 2024, 69 were built on anthropogenic structures. In 2024, 16 of the nests were built on artificial platforms, most of which had been installed to attract Ospreys away from nesting on problematic structures such as electrical distribution poles. Effective conservation of San Francisco Bay’s urban nesting population will require installation of additional artificial nest platforms to mitigate nest removal or deterrence to protect infrastructure and prevent Osprey electrocutions.

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