‘Osprey cam’ streams life of nesting seabirds perched at tip of 55 metre-long Queensland rainforest canopy crane

It started by chance – but it should have come as no surprise that two ospreys would pick a hi-tech research facility to make their home.

James Cook University’s 47-metre tall crane towers over the far-north Queensland rainforest canopy, making it the perfect nesting place for the seabird.

Year in, year out, the birds return to nest, regardless of the spot’s challenges.

“The crane is constantly moving,” the station manager of the university’s Daintree Rainforest Observatory, Johan Larson, said.

The jib of the crane is 55 metres long, meaning the nest can move 110 metres from its last position, he said.

“But they have no problems finding it.”

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The canopy crane – designed to give researchers access to the rainforest from above – is the centrepiece of the university’s Daintree Rainforest Observatory, a field station nestled in lowland rainforest, featuring everything from a lecture theatre to indoor and outdoor laboratories.

Just a kilometre from the coast, the nest is close enough to the ocean for the birds to make a catch and completely safe from ground-based predators.

“I think they haven’t missed a single year for the last 15 years, so I think they really like it,” Larson said.

Ospreys live for up to 25 years; researchers at the observatory believe the nest has been consistently inhabited by the same breeding pair.

A few years ago, someone at the university had the idea of aiming a web camera at the nest.

Today “Osprey cam” livestreams the life cycle of the birds world-wide, a 24/7 eye-in-the-sky, watching their movements from cradle to grave.

Larson said nature lovers from around the world tune in to watch the animals build a home, hunt and raise offspring, every year.

“I think people in general find it fascinating to be able to watch wild animals live, and it’s very unique to be able to see a nest in particular,” he said.

“It’s quite an online attraction.”

Ospreys are small daytime predators that eat almost exclusively fish.

Unlike their European or American counterparts, Australian ospreys don’t migrate, so the couple live near the crane all year.

Nonetheless, they have to rebuild a nest from scratch each year. Crane maintenance crews clear the remnants of the nest every year – but even if they didn’t, the birds tend to let their constructions fall apart after raising their young.

Rebuilding it isn’t a straightforward task, Larson said.

“It’s fascinating to watch them,” he said.

“They’ll bring the first stick on top of the metal structure, and then the wind will catch it and it kind of swivels and then falls through the gap. They take a deep breath, go get another stick, try again.

“It’s actually pretty quick once they get started. It only takes a few weeks.”

Then comes the raising process.

“They are very good parents. They tend to, from what we observe, take turns. The female spends more time on the eggs and more time with the chicks when they hatch, and the male, even though they both hunt, he tends to bring in more of the fish,” he said.

It’s not unheard of for researchers to stumble across fish that have fallen from the sky, dropped by the mum or dad.

Larson said it’s inevitable that the birds will one day die, and perhaps leave the perfect nesting spot to a new pair.

“It’s always sad to see an animal die but I guess it is the cycle of life,” he said.

“Hopefully another pair will take over. It might even be one of their offspring that takes that spot.”