With a piercing yellow eye, powerful hooked bill and distinctive deep brown and white markings, the Osprey is a fish-eating raptor famous for snatching prey out of the water in spectacular dives. Although it is one of the most widespread birds of prey in the world, the Osprey faced merciless persecution in Britain and was almost completely eradicated by the early twentieth century. Thanks to extensive conservation efforts, the Osprey has made a much celebrated comeback. returning initially to Loch Garten in Scotland in the 1950s before expanding across Scotland and northern England. Subsequent reintroduction programmes were established at Rutland Water and Poole Harbour to restore the Osprey further south, meaning that this once persecuted species is now an increasingly common sight in British skies.

At the forefront of the Rutland Osprey Project, Tim MacKrill is an expert on the efforts carried out to reinstate the species. The Osprey is the culmination of decades of research and conservation work, and covers everything from distribution and foraging ecology to breeding behaviour and population dynamics. While emphasis is placed on work in Britain, The Osprey also covers practices elsewhere in Europe, North America, and Australia and on the species' wintering grounds in West Africa. Advances in satellite tracking technology have given ornithologists a significantly better understanding of Osprey migration. Alongside maps of migration routes, this book shares the incredible stories of individual birds journeying across oceans and deserts.

Full of up-to-date research, informative diagrams and stunning photography, The Osprey showcases the determined efforts of conservationists and ornithologists to understand and protect this remarkable bird of prey.