Booming of male bitterns reveals presence of at least 164 of the heron-like waders living in British wetlands, says charity

Populations of the bittern, a wetland bird that was facing extinction in the UK in the late 1990s, are at a record high, conservationists report.

Resident numbers of “Britain’s loudest bird” increased in 2017, and experts – using the foghorn-like booming call of the males to survey the species – have counted at least 164 birds at 71 sites.

The RSPB attributed the rise in populations to intensive conservation efforts that have protected the birds’ preferred habitat of dense, wet, reedbeds. The wildlife charity said the turnaround in the bird’s fortunes had been helped by legal protection of the habitats and funding through two environmental projects under the EU Life scheme for the creation of new reedbed areas.

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Simon Wotton, senior conservation scientist at the RPSB, said: “In the late 1990s the bittern was heading towards extinction once again in the UK. But thanks to conservation efforts to restore and create its preferred habitat of wet reedbed, the bittern was saved and we’re delighted to see another record year for this amazing bird.”

The RSPB called for levels of habitat protection for bitterns and other species to remain or be improved as the UK left the EU.

Annual monitoring, organised by the RSPB, discovered 162 Eurasian bitterns (Botaurus stellaris) at 78 sites, in 2016. This year the number of booming males was found to have increased by two in Somerset, to 49. There was a slight drop in numbers, though, in core areas in eastern England, including in the Fens, Norfolk Broads and Suffolk coast.

The birds’ booming was recorded at three new sites – two in Wales and one in the Ouse Washes, Cambridgeshire. There was also a rise in numbers generally in Wales, the RSPB said.

Bitterns, which are heron-like birds, once prized as a dish for medieval banquets, were considered extinct as a breeding species in the UK by the 1870s. They recolonised the UK in the early 20th century, with a peak of about 80 booming males in the 1950s, but then numbers slid to fewer than 20 in the 1990s.

By 1997, the species was facing extinction in the UK again, with there being just 11 males, mainly in Norfolk and Suffolk, with a small outlying population at Leighton Moss, Lancashire.