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

Researchers believe the same pair of birds have been mating and nesting in the unusual spot in the Daintree Rainforest for 15 consecutive years

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.

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.