Five rare young birds known as osprey or fishing raptors will be taken to a new home in central Iowa this morning. The osprey chicks are going to be reintroduced along the shores of Saylorville Lake, near the town of Granger. Kami Rankin of the Polk County Conservation Board says the osprey grow to have a wingspan of five or six feet and weigh up to four pounds. Rankin says this marks only the third time this type of bird has been reintroduced in Iowa since the birds all but vanished several decades ago.At ten o’clock this morning, the five chicks will be placed in a box with a screen front about 30-feet up a pole in what’s called a “hack tower.” They’ll be kept enclosed and will be fed by conservation board staff for about ten days before the door is opened and they’re allowed to fly out. She says the chicks will “imprint” the area so that they come back after migrating south.Rankin says osprey have also been released at parks in the Cedar Falls and Iowa City areas.
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