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Monitored New Jersey Osprey Pair Lost All Three Chicks After Signs of Food Stress

Osprey carrying a fish in flight at Cape May, New Jersey
Conservation: Threats · Research: Reproduction & development

A closely monitored Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) pair in Stafford Township, New Jersey, USA, lost all three chicks during the 2026 breeding season. Senior wildlife biologist Ben Wurst of the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey documented the brood through June and July and described increasingly clear signs of food stress as the chicks grew.

Three nestlings were present on 17 June. By 4 July, two remained; on 8 July one live chick was photographed beside a dead sibling, and two dead chicks were documented on 10 July. Wurst reports that the pair ultimately lost all three young. He described the sequence as brood reduction under food shortage, where limited prey leaves younger or weaker chicks at a disadvantage, although in this case the losses continued until the brood was gone.

Wurst also reported similar signs at other coastal New Jersey nests, including adults spending longer away foraging, chicks being left unattended while both parents searched for food and unusually small fish being brought back. He described such nest losses as common along the coast that summer. His 31 July account, however, did not provide a completed statewide 2026 total.

A regional American Birding Association review published two days earlier reported poor Osprey reproduction along much of the Atlantic Coast and linked the pattern to food stress and reduced availability of Atlantic menhaden (Brevoortia tyrannus), an important prey fish. The review also stressed that the cause of the reduced menhaden availability was not definitively known and that the full geographic scope of the Osprey losses was still being assessed.

Sources and image credit

  1. Wurst, B. (2026, July 31). My Summer of Death and Despair.Primary field account. Documents the loss of all three chicks at a closely monitored Stafford Township Osprey nest, dated photographic observations, brood reduction and widespread signs of food stress at coastal New Jersey nests.
  2. Izaguirre, F. (2026, July 29). Where Have All the Ospreys Gone?Regional synthesis based on interviews with Osprey researchers and monitors. Reports poor reproduction along the Atlantic Coast, evidence consistent with food stress and sharply reduced menhaden delivery at monitored Chesapeake nests, while noting that the cause of menhaden scarcity and the full scope of the losses were still unresolved.

Image: Wild Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) carrying a fish in flight at Cape May, New Jersey, USA, 18 September 2010. Photo: Kenneth Norris / Flickr via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0. Representative species image illustrating food provisioning; not a bird from the monitored Stafford Township pair. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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