Act now to help us conserve the curlew

A species in decline

Act now to help us conserve the curlew

There are few more iconic sights than a curlew in flight, but without intervention it could be something future generations will never get to enjoy. The curlew with its distinctive haunting call, is now one of our most rapidly declining breeding bird species in the UK.

Since the year 2000, we’ve lost half of our resident curlew. Once the curlew was considered a common species in Britain, breeding in marshes, meadows and arable fields as well as on moorland. Very sadly, the famously evocative and previously familiar call of the curlew is now becoming increasingly rare. The curlew was added to the UK red list in December 2015, and it is argued to be the most pressing bird conservation priority in the UK.

According to Andrew Hoodless, the Director of Research at the GWCT:

“The curlew is an emblematic species, it is in our history, it is symbolic of these wild species. More importantly, if things are going wrong for curlew and curlews are declining, they are fairly high up the food chain, so we would lose a whole range of other species from invertebrates to meadow flowers all the way up to the top of the chain. But, if we can get things right for curlew, we are safeguarding a whole ecosystem which brings a whole range of other benefits, so it's not just about the curlew.”

Curlew declines are a ticking time bomb, as we know that these waders are long-lived, with high annual adult survival meaning that many live to over 15 years. This, however, masks the issue of very low breeding success, so that when adults reach the end of their lives there are no younger birds to take their place and the population starts to crash.

How kind donations from our supporters have already helped

Allowed us to collate more information on Curlew nest locations
Help us to create practical guidelines and get to those on the ground who can help bring about curlew recovery.
Enabled us to get conservationists like PhD student Elli Rivers out to curlew sites with trail cameras to learn more about the risks these birds face and advise on predation control.

Andrew Hoodless, Director of Research at the GWCT explains,

“It's a numbers game, the quicker we can do the science and come up with a policy to inform Government, Natural England and Defra on what techniques are likely to be effective and what scale they need to be deployed at, then we're more likely to save curlews before those remaining adults die and don't stand a chance to breed.”

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