Osprey

Where does the osprey live?

Home: Lakes, rivers and coasts on every continent but Antarctica.

In the wild it lives in these countries: the United States, Canada, Russia, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Australia.

Conservation status from the IUCN: not in danger.

The short profile

Fully grown: 50-66 cm long, wingspan 127-180 cm. It weighs about 1.5 kilograms. On the menu: meat.

The story behind it

An osprey hovers over the water, folds its wings and drops, hitting the surface with its feet and sometimes going right under. Everything about those feet is built for slippery prey: the outer toe can swivel backwards so two toes grip in front and two behind, and the soles are covered in small sharp spikes. Once the fish is out of the water the bird turns it head first, which cuts the drag on the long flight home. Fish make up about ninety-nine out of every hundred meals. Ospreys build huge stick nests on poles, dead trees and platforms, adding to the same nest for years until it is two metres across. European birds spend the winter in Africa, travelling roughly 270 kilometres on a good day.

Find it on the globe

Osprey is there as a tiny animated figure that breathes and looks around. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.

It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.