Ospreys recovered from extinction in Scotland and are now expanding south, but individual welfare challenges remain from fishing interactions, power lines, and persecution.
Individual osprey welfare involves the acute harms of fishing line entanglement (which causes drowning or slow death from wound infection), power line trauma, and illegal persecution, as well as the chronic welfare costs of long-distance migration including weather, prey availability, and collision risk. Fishing tackle welfare harm is preventable: responsible anglers who retrieve all monofilament and hooks and avoid leaving bait in osprey-frequented areas directly benefit individual birds. Power line providers can retrofit dangerous sections with bird deflectors or underground cables in areas with regular osprey mortality. Individual welfare monitoring through satellite tagging of young ospreys has revealed the specific mortality risks they face.