The osprey is a spring migratory bird, found nesting in parts of Scotland, Cumbria, the East Midlands and Wales from March to September. Ospreys can also be spotted at large waterbodies across the country during migration. 

Records suggest that 20-40 ospreys pass through Norfolk each spring and similar numbers are seen each autumn. 

Ospreys returned to breed at Loch Garten in Scotland in 1954. Over the next 50 or so years range expansion was very slow. It took a long time before they returned to northern England where the first pair bred at Bassenthwaite Lake in Cumbria. The Rutland Water Osprey Introduction project came about to create a second centre of population in the UK, giving security for the species in case anything should go wrong in the Scottish population. 

There have been no recorded breeding osprey in the East for over 250 years.  

Ospreys have been seen passing through Norfolk, including at Ranworth Broad, for several years but only in the last few years we have seen a male settle for most of the summer. A female arrived at the end of May 2024, but it was too late to mate. They both turned up at the beginning of April this year and immediately began building their nest.  

Neither bird is ringed so although we can’t be sure, it is very likely it is the same pair from last year based on all the typical behaviours 

We have seen two chicks on the nest. Osprey will typically lay two eggs, sometimes three. The chicks will stay with the parents until they are ready to migrate in September. 

In winter 2022, we built a platform to encourage the osprey to settle down and nest at Ranworth Broad, and in previous years they have spent time creating a nest on this platform. Last year, as the female arrived too late to hatch eggs, the pair spent the summer building their own nests at other locations on the site. When they arrived this year, they chose to use a nest they had begun building in 2024. 

The osprey is a large bird of prey with dark brown upperparts and contrasting white underparts. Their heads are white with a dark brown through their eyes. Their wings during flight show strong barring and distinctively dark brown, angled ‘wrists’. Females are larger and tend to have a “necklace” of brown feathers on their chest. 

Cameras can be expensive, and the set up requires time and care. As it is hard to predict where the osprey will nest, this year, we decided to put a camera on the side of the visitor centre, as this was our best opportunity to make sure we would capture at least some osprey activity and share it in our visitor centre and on our website. 

You can watch the osprey via our new wildlife camera found on our website.  

As a protected species it is a criminal offence to disturb nesting osprey. To keep our wildlife safe, Ranworth Broad is closed to recreational users year-round. 

The chosen nest site is in an area with no public access. Since the arrival of the first male osprey three years hence we have been tailoring the boat trips on NWT Ranworth Broad, restricting the route to areas of the open water that will not disturb the ospreys. This has proved to be successful in that the Ospreys have become accustomed to the boat activities, though we continue to constantly monitor the effects of our boat operations.

There are staff onsite monitoring the nest from afar daily. Due to the position of the nest, our visitor centre affords line of sight surveillance seven days a week and our wildlife web camera supplements this surveillance 24hrs a day. 

Ospreys are faithful to their nest site and to their mate. They very rarely leave a living partner but, if their mate fails to return from migration, they will often find another partner to help ensure they can pass their genes on to a further generation. 

Ospreys have a typical lifespan of nine years and can live up to 20 or 25 years. 

Ospreys eat fish, hunting for them in lakes and lochs, plunging into the water to grab their prey with outstretched talons before carrying it away. Ranworth Broad is at the centre of the Norfolk Broads, which means the birds have access to a variety of fishing places.  

They can be seen fishing at Ranworth Broad and sometimes will fish further afield at sites including NWT Cockshoot Broad, which is found on the other side of the trees at the back of Ranworth Broad.  

Nests are about 5-6ft wide. Nests often get damaged over winter, but each year the birds return to the same nest site and as soon as they arrive, the nest is added to and built up, so it can end up being huge. 

Ospreys are quite house proud and constantly add to and adjust the nest throughout the summer. Over the course of the summer the nest shape changes too. It starts off with quite a cup-shaped hollow, to protect the eggs and reduce the risk of them rolling out. 

As the eggs hatch and the chicks start to grow, the adults add more material to the sides of the nest, so that as the chicks get older and bigger, it is more of a flat platform, giving them more space to move around. Any eggs that don’t hatch become buried deep in the ever-changing structure of the nest. 

Ospreys migrate to West Africa and Portugal during winter; satellite tracking has shown them flying up to 430 km in just one day. It takes them about 20 flying days to complete the journey, but, in autumn, birds stop off to refuel at lakes and reservoirs. 

Length: 56cm Wingspan: 1.6m Weight: 1.5kg

The osprey is classified in the UK as Amber under the Birds of Conservation Concern 5: the Red List for Birds (2021). Protected in the UK under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, 1981.