If you want to learn more about albatrosses, I highly recommend the book Albatross: Their World, Their Ways by Tui De Roy, Mark Jones and Julian Fritter.
It’s a large and wonderful book full with great pictures and a lot of very interesting text.

The book is divided in three parts.

The first part is a description of the albatross species of the world. This are no detailed species accounts (those are in part 3), but very interesting stories about albatrosses and also about the adventures of Tui De Roy (one of the authors), who traveled the oceans of the world to watch and photograph the albatrosses of the world. Here pictures are absolutely stunning and contain some of the best albatross pictures I’ve ever seen in a book.

The second part of the book is about science and conservation. It’s written by many of the leading experts on albatrosses. This part explains the amazing flight capabilities of the albatrosses, answer the question if young albatrosses always return to the island where they where born and shows the reader the wonders of albatross migrations across the vast southern ocean. This part also has many chapters on conservation. It has up to date stories of the situation of many species and also stories about measures that are currently implemented to save the birds.
The third and last part describes every species. It’s not agreed upon among experts how many albatross species there are. While until recently, only 13 species were recognized, some experts now say there are at least 24 species. The book describes the 22 species that are (at the moment) recognized by Birdlife International.

All the text in the book is very interesting and written in a style so that every birder and anybody else who is interested in albatrosses can read this book.
The amazing pictures also make this a great coffee table book.

This is a wonderful book and one of the most beautiful books ever produced one a bird family. Highly recommend for anyone interested in albatrosses, their live, behavior and future.

For more information about albatross conservation, visit www.savethealbatross.net, the website of the albatross conservation program of Birdlife International and other partners.

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For more information, see the information by the RSPB:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/news/details.asp?id=tcm:9-204312

The layout of the book is very beautiful and the text is easy to read (if you speak Spanish of course).

If you are interested in the birds of Spain and if you can read Spanish than this is a very interesting book to add to your library.

More information about the book can be found here:
http://www.hbw.com/lynx/en/lynx-edicions/portada-lynx/MON0016-aves-amenazadas-espana

This book tells their story. Roy Dennis writes about the early days of his work with Ospreys, how much hard work he and others put into the protection of a very small population at the beginning of the recovery. He writes about the great excitement when the first chicks fledged and also about the disappointment when eggs were robbed (a common problem until the 1980ies).

Beside the story behind the successful recovery in Scotland, several chapters give a detailed description of the life and behavior of the Osprey. The author describes the breeding ecology, the annual migration, food, hunting and more. The chapter on migration is particularly interesting, especially when Roy Dennis explains all the new knowledge gained by the use of satellite transmitters.

Of course the book also covers the threats Ospreys currently face (chemical pollution, egg theft, wind farms and overfishing in the African winter quarters). After the threats a very interesting chapter explains how to protect ospreys, including ways to drive away egg thieves, how to build artificial nests and more. An extra chapter tells the story of the return of the Osprey to England and Wales (including the successful Rutland Water project).

At the end of the book, Roy Dennis also covers the current situation of Ospreys in other countries all over the world.

When reading the book, it’s obvious how much the author loves those amazing birds and how much he cares about them. Beside the main text, you find many personal field notes of Roy Dennis.

The writing of the book is very good and it is hard to put the book down.

The book has everything. A detailed description of the Osprey’s biology, many personal tales from the author himself and the encouraging story and proof that conservation does work when birds are protected and many dedicated people care about them.

This book is highly recommend for everyone interested in Osprey or raptors or birds in general.

Roy Dennis has created the Highland Foundation for Wildlife which works for the conservation of Ospreys and other birds like White-tailed Eagles, Golden Eagles and more. Be sure to visit his official website:
roydennis.org

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The population of both species has increased during the last years but it would probably much higher today if there weren’t so many eagles killed. This is a serious problem that could prevent the full recovery of both species in Hungary.

This problem is not unique to Hungary but widespread accross Europa. For example, there are known cases where White-tailed Eagles and Eastern Imperial Eagles have been poisoned in Austria. In Germany Red Kites and others have been poisoned. In Spain many raptors including Red Kites, Spanish Imperial Eagles and different vulture species are poisoned regularly. And in Scotland Golden Eagles and Red Kites are often the victim.

Sometimes the poisoning is directed at mammals like foxes or wolves but often the birds are the primary target themselves.

The Lesser Spotted Eagle is a rare and endangered species of eastern Europe with the most western population in Germany (only about 100 pairs). It is endangered because of habitat loss, disturbance during the breeding season and illegal shooting during migration. A lot of effort goes into the conservation of this species in Germany and other countries.

The The Committee Against Bird Slaughter has reports of killing Black Storks and two Marsh Harriers.

Here is another report about a real massacre on Malta.

It is really sad that many protected species are still killed, obviously just for fun.

More information:

Birdlife Malta
The Committee Against Bird Slaughter

On the website you can find a very interesting report in PDF format about the current situation of the birds of the world.
The report is available in English, Spanish and French.

More information:
State of the world’s birds.