The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the success stories of German bird conservation. After decades of persecution and later pollutants such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) drove the breeding population down to about 70 pairs by the mid-1970s, a long recovery set in.
Between 2017 and 2022 the German osprey population is estimated to have grown to 800 to 850 territorial pairs. For comparison: in 1999 there were 350 to 380 breeding pairs, about 500 in 2005, and 700 to 750 osprey pairs between 2011 and 2016.
The core range is still the Northeast German Lowlands. Brandenburg held around 377 breeding pairs in 2019, and around 252 breeding pairs are reported for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2022. At the same time the osprey keeps spreading south and west. The trend was especially dynamic in Saxony, where the population grew to about 100 to 120 pairs by 2023.
Artificial nest sites play a key role in the recovery. In the eastern strongholds in particular, many ospreys use high-voltage pylons and purpose-built nesting poles to hold their eyries. In Saxony-Anhalt in 2021, for example, all 53 documented nests sat on power or nesting poles.
WildeNatur at the osprey banding
In 2021 we documented a young osprey pair in the Upper Palatinate in Bavaria. What started in 2020 with sightings of a single male turned into two years of close photographic and documentary work. When a female joined in 2021 and bred successfully, NABU invited us to be there for the banding of the chicks. For us, a rare and unforgettable look at species protection in practice. Bavaria holds about 20 osprey breeding pairs, which is why the bird is still listed as “threatened with extinction” on the Bavarian Red List.
Why are ospreys banded?
Banding matters here because it lets individual birds be identified again later. That is how experts learn about migration routes, nest sites, settlement, life expectancy and how the population develops. Every ring reading helps to decode a little more of a bird’s life story. So if you have a photo of an osprey with a readable ring, report it to the right place, for example NABU. You help conservation, and you get interesting information about the bird in return.
For ring recoveries or ring readings:
More osprey content
Sources
- NABU, osprey species portrait, accessed on 9 September 2026
- Bundesamt für Naturschutz, species portrait Pandion haliaetus, accessed on 9 September 2026
- Natursport Info, osprey species profile, historical population series, accessed on 9 September 2026
- Dachverband Deutscher Avifaunisten, ADEBAR atlas material on the osprey: about 70 breeding pairs in the mid-1970s
- Landesamt für Umwelt Brandenburg, documentation on birds and wind power: Brandenburg 2019, 377 breeding pairs or territories
- Müritz National Park, osprey: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 2022, 252 breeding pairs, accessed on 9 September 2026
- Nachtigall, Gleichner and Herold: The settlement of Saxony by white-tailed eagles and ospreys. Der Falke 10/2024: Saxony 2023, 100 to 120 pairs
- Landesamt für Umweltschutz Sachsen-Anhalt, bird monitoring 2021, Berichte des LAU 1/2023: 56 territorial pairs, 53 of them with a nest, all on power or nesting poles
