An update by Bethan Beech of Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Wales and
Specialist Advisor, Terrestrial Species Recovery at Natural Resources Wales.
As WOS members will know, breeding Curlew, along with a number of other breeding waders in Wales, are in significant decline and need urgent help to aid recovery.
In Wales, the breeding Curlew population has declined by 80% since the mid-1990s, with a similar rate of decline in Ireland and 50% declines in England and Scotland. Based on expert opinion it is estimated that the total Welsh Curlew breeding population is currently between 400 to 500 breeding pairs.
We know the key driver of population decline in this relatively long-lived bird is poor breeding success. It is widely accepted by scientists that the maintenance of a stable breeding Curlew population requires each breeding pair to produce 0.6 fledged chicks per year. It is thought that current productivity in Wales is 0.3 fledged chicks per year, only half of what is required, with some areas fledging no chicks at all in some years. Low productivity is predominantly driven by predation of eggs and chicks by meso-predators, such as Red Fox and Carrion Crow and the switch from hay to silage where much earlier cutting dates does not allow time for young chicks to fledge.
Gylfinir Cymru / Curlew Wales identified twelve Important Curlew Areas (ICAs) in Wales Recovery Plan | Curlew Wales each of which has a lead organisation to monitor and manage for breeding Curlew. Habitat management and predator control are being carried out in a number of these ICAs but significant increases in productivity are yet to be achieved.
2024: a difficult spring and early summer
The spring 2024 was mostly cold and wet, with heavy and prolonged June rainfall creating difficult foraging conditions for the Curlew chicks. Data collated from 11 ICAs in Wales, in addition to areas monitored by volunteers of the Gwent Ornithological Society and a survey commissioned by Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri in Meirionnydd, suggested 253 confirmed Curlew breeding territories in Wales. The number of chicks fledged from those territories was estimated to be between 51 (probable) and 80 (possible), giving an indicative 0.2-.0.3 fledged chicks per breeding pair.
The cold wet spring of 2024 made foraging difficult for Curlew chicks (Photo Gylfinir Cynru / Curlew Wales)
In addition to conservation interventions such as habitat management and predator control, a practice known as head-starting has been undertaken in Germany, Poland and a number of other countries since 2014. Curlew head-starting is the taking of Curlew eggs from the wild, incubating those eggs and rearing chicks in captivity under bio-secure conditions, and then releasing these chicks back into the natal area as fledglings.
In England, Curlew eggs on RAF air bases were destroyed under licence for the purpose of air safety. Since 2019 Curlew eggs have been removed under licence, incubated and then released at a number of areas in lowland England.
Gylfinir Cymru is currently working to develop a framework to inform any Curlew head-starting proposal in Wales.
Curlew eggs could be taken from the wild, incubated and the chicks reared in captivity before being released (Photo: Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Wales)
The charity, Curlew Action recently organised an online European Workshop on head-starting on the 8th and 9th February 2025. All presentations are now available on their You Tube Channel. The presentation given Geoff Hilton of WWT Headstarting: The Big Picture provides a very useful introduction to the topic.
For the 2025 breeding season, all records of breeding Curlew are very valuable. For details of who is working on curlew in the different areas of Wales please visit the blog pages of the Gylfinir Cymru web site Blog | Curlew Wales to see who to discuss your sightings with. Please enter records into the dedicated all Wales Cofnod Curlew recording page Cofnod – North Wales Environmental Information Service | Home or into your Local Environmental Records Centre.
All head started Curlew are ringed and fitted with leg flags. The reporting of these birds, particularly during the breeding season, will help us learn about the return rates and breeding behaviour of those birds in comparison to wild birds. A number were seen in Wales in 2024. Further sightings in 2025 should be passed through the colour ringing reporting channels.
NRW are planning to commission a Wales Wader Survey during 2026 which will involve a combination of paid surveyors and volunteers in areas of Wales. We will be asking for your help and support throughout Wales to build up as complete a picture of the distribution of these iconic birds as possible. Further details of the Wales Wader Survey will be available before the end of 2025.
If you find Curlew in suitable breeding habitat this spring, please record the sighting. You can do this via your local County Bird Recorder, your Local Environmental Records Centre or by using BTO’s BirdTrack. Your welcome to drop Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Wales a line too: hello@curlewwales.org
