{"id":10202,"date":"2026-04-09T11:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/10202\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T11:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T11:12:12","slug":"britains-lost-giant-bird-booms-after-400-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/10202\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain\u2019s \u2018lost\u2019 giant bird booms after 400 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Catherine Catherine Early<\/a> 09\/04\/2026 11:06 4 min <\/p>\n

Conservation efforts for the UK\u2019s tallest bird are proving successful, with a record number of cranes having chicks last year. <\/p>\n

In 2025, 87 pairs of the Crane raised 37 young, bringing the UK\u2019s total population to around 250 individuals.<\/p>\n

Cranes used to be a familiar part of British wildlife. The birds stand at over one metre high, and their \u2018bugling\u2019 call can be heard up to 3.5 miles away.<\/p>\n

You can now see a flock of over a hundred Cranes in the Fens in the winter, something that would have been unthinkable even 20 years ago.<\/p>\n

They are also famed for their courtship dances – complex noisy displays with bows, pirouettes and bobs, which take place during the breeding season between the male and female.<\/p>\n

But overhunting led to their extinction in the UK in the 1600s. They were popular food of royalty, with the Christmas feast of Henry III in 1251 reportedly serving 115 Cranes. <\/p>\n

The loss of their favoured wetland habitat was also instrumental in their decline.<\/p>\n

How were Cranes bought back from extinction? <\/p>\n

The species started recolonising in the UK in 1979, when a small number of wild Cranes from mainland Europe came to Norfolk.<\/p>\n

At least 80% of the breeding population are now found on protected sites, with a third on RSPB reserves alone, up from just two pairs in 2010.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

These include RSPB West Sedgemoor in Somerset and RSPB Lakenheath Fen in Suffolk. <\/p>\n

Cranes now reach as far as Scotland, which also had a record year for breeding Cranes in 2025, with at least ten pairs fledging nine chicks. In 2024, there were just six pairs in the country. <\/p>\n

Who has helped boost Crane numbers? <\/p>\n

Individual landowners and nature reserves have played a vital role in Cranes\u2019 recovery, according to conservation charity the RSPB. <\/p>\n

Wetlands that had been drained have been protected and restored, providing habitats for the birds to raise their chicks. <\/p>\n

The Great Crane Project, a partnership between the RSPB, WWT and the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust, and funded by Viridor Credits Environmental Company, also gave Crane numbers a big boost. <\/p>\n

Between 2009 and 2014, this partnership hand-reared Cranes in the Somerset Levels and Moors, and created suitable nesting habitat across the landscape, working with local farming families.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Andrew Stanbury, RSPB conservation scientist, said: \u201cCranes are iconic birds, but for hundreds of years their incredible mating \u2018dances\u2019 and unmistakable bugling calls were lost to us in the UK. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so lucky to live in a time where they are bouncing back \u2013 you can now see a flock of over a hundred Cranes in the Fens in the winter, something that would have been unthinkable even 20 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Martin McGill, reserve manager at WWT Slimbridge, noted that the Crane remains vulnerable, with their habitats at risk from the ever-increasing impacts of climate change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catherine Early 09\/04\/2026 11:06 4 min Conservation efforts for the UK\u2019s tallest bird are proving successful, with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4947,13,4948,2439,4945,4946,4944],"class_list":{"0":"post-10202","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"tag-birds","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-climatechange","11":"tag-conservation","12":"tag-extinction","13":"tag-nature","14":"tag-rspb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116374453806718979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}