Study on shorebirds suggests that when conserving species, not all land is equal

Date: June 9, 2020

Source: Princeton University

Princeton University researchers may have solved a long-standing mystery in conservation that could influence how natural lands are designated for the preservation of endangered species.

Around the world, the migratory shorebirds that are a conspicuous feature of coastal habitats are losing access to the tidal flats -- the areas between dry land and the sea -- they rely on for food as they travel and prepare to breed. But a major puzzle has been that species' populations are plummeting several times faster than the rate at which coastal ecosystems are lost to development.

Nowhere is the loss of tidal flats and shorebird species more acute than along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). An estimated 5 million migratory birds from 55 species use the flyway to travel from southern Australia to northern Siberia along the rapidly developing coast of China -- where tidal flats can be more than 6 miles wide -- at which birds stop to rest and refuel.

Since the 1980s, the loss of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea has averaged 1.2% per year. Yet, the annual loss of the most endangered bird species has averaged between 5.1 and 7.5%, with populations of species such as the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers (Calidris pygmaea) climbing as high as 26% each year.

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Action plan to save Bolivia’s red-fronted macaw awaits its reboot

by Yvette Sierra Praeli on 24 March 2020 | Translated by Alexandra Skinner

Nature reserves involving the participation of indigenous communities have developed tourism projects for bird-watching and succeeded in curbing the capture of the red-fronted macaw, a critically endangered species that is often caught up in the illegal wildlife trade.

The Bolivian government has been promoting an action plan to conserve the species, which was expected to be approved last year.

Following President Evo Morales’s removal from office and the subsequent change in government late last year, the plan is still awaiting approval.

For 13 years, Marlene Rivas has been part of a team working to protect the red-fronted macaw (Ara rubrogenysa), a bird endemic to Bolivia that is classified as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List.

“Before, we didn’t take care of the birds. We didn’t know they were in danger of extinction. Red-fronted macaws were captured as pets and killed because they damaged crops,” Rivas says about some of the factors pushing the species to the verge of extinction.

Now, she says, residents of the towns of San Carlos, Amaya and Perereta, in Omereque municipality, Cochabamba department, are proud to have the bird in their area. The towns are part of the Red-Fronted Macaw Nature Reserve, one of the areas dedicated to the conservation of this species.

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Female Great Indian Bustard, one of estimated 7, dies in Kutch

Forest officers of Kutch circle said that the bird died while foraging near Bhanada, around 15 km south of the GIB Sanctuary located near Naliya, the headquarters of Nakhatrana taluka of Kutch district.

By: Express News Service | Rajkot | Published: February 27, 2020 1:54:02 am

Two days after the 13th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (COP13 CMS), a global body functioning under the aegis of the United Nations, included the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) on its Appendix-I and called for concerted action for its conservation, a female GIB died in Kutch on Tuesday after a lizard was stuck in its throat.

Unofficial estimates suggest that with Tuesday’s death, the number of GIB individuals has plunged to just six GIBs in Kutch, all of them females. As many as 25 birds were counted during the great Indian bustard census conducted in Gujarat in 2016.

Forest officers of Kutch circle said that the bird died while foraging near Bhanada, around 15 km south of the GIB Sanctuary located near Naliya, the headquarters of Nakhatrana taluka of Kutch district. The area falls in the jurisdiction of Kutch (west) forest division.

“This is an extremely rare phenomenon. Prima facie, the reptile tried to escape after being preyed on by the bird and in the process, choked the trachea of the bird,” said Tushar Patel, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Kutch (West).

With this, the number of GIBs in Kutch has declined further. “One of our watchmen saw the bird exhibiting unusual behavior. The bird sat awkwardly for a rather long time. The watchman tried to check on the bird but when he reached the spot, it had died. We do not have present population estimation of the birds, but the incident means one bird less” the CCF said.

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Flightless bird provides 'spark of hope' amid environmental crisis

Ten species with improved numbers in IUCN red list unveiled amid call for more biodiversity focus at COP25

by Fiona Harvey in Madrid

Tue 10 Dec 2019 13.54 GMTLast modified on Wed 11 Dec 2019 08.38 GMT

The Guam rail, a flightless bird typically about 30cm long, usually dull brown in colour and adorned with black and white stripes, has become a rare success story in the recent history of conservation.

Previously extinct in the wild, the bird has been saved by captive breeding programmes and on Tuesday its status was updated on the IUCN red list of threatened species to critically endangered, along with nine others whose numbers have recently improved.

The Guam rail fell prey to the brown tree snake, an invasive species accidentally introduced to the US island territory at the end of the second world war. It is only the second bird in history to recover from being extinct in the wild, after the California condor.

Other species to have their status updated include the echo parakeet, of which there are now more than 750 in the wild, leading to a reclassification as a “vulnerable” species, having been critically endangered more than a decade ago.

The Australian trout cod and pedder galaxias, both freshwater fish, have also showed improvement, the former moving from endangered to vulnerable and the latter from critically endangered to endangered, after many years of conservation efforts.

The 10 species showing recovered numbers were “a spark of hope in the midst of the biodiversity crisis”, said Grethel Aguilar, the acting director general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, whose red list is the global gold standard data covering species on the brink. “[They] prove that nature will recover if given half a chance.”

However, the red list data released on Tuesday also showed 73 species declines despite conservation efforts, and the list now numbers 112,432 species around the world, of which more than 30,000 are on the brink of extinction.

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Study recommends special protection of emperor penguins

OCTOBER 9, 2019

by British Antarctic Survey

In a new study published this week (Wednesday 9 October) in the journal Biological Conservation, an international team of researchers recommends the need for additional measures to protect and conserve one of the most iconic Antarctic species—the emperor penguin (Aptenodyptes forsteri).

The researchers reviewed over 150 studies on the species and its environment as well as its behaviour and character in relation to its breeding biology. Current climate change projections indicate that rising temperatures and changing wind patterns will impact negatively the sea ice on which emperor penguins breed; and some studies indicate that emperor populations will decrease by more than 50% over the current century. The researchers therefore recommend that the IUCN status for the species be escalated to 'vulnerable'; the species is currently listed as 'near threatened' on the IUCN Red List. They conclude that improvements in climate change forecasting in relation to impacts on Antarctic wildlife would be beneficial, and recommend that the emperor penguin should be listed by the Antarctic Treaty as a Specially Protected Species.

Lead author Dr. Philip Trathan, Head of Conservation Biology at British Antarctic Survey, says:

"The current rate of warming in parts of the Antarctic is greater than anything in the recent glaciological record. Though emperor penguins have experienced periods of warming and cooling over their evolutionary history, the current rates of warming are unprecedented."

"Currently, we have no idea how the emperors will adjust to the loss of their primary breeding habitat—sea ice. They are not agile and climbing ashore across steep coastal land forms will be difficult. For breeding, they depend upon sea ice, and in a warming world there is a high probability that this will decrease. Without it, they will have little or no breeding habitat."

Greater protection measures will enable scientists to coordinate research into the penguins' resilience to a range of different threats and stressors.

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Conservation or construction? Deciding waterbird hotspots

JULY 30, 2019

by Jessi Adler And Elise Zipkin, Michigan State University

Imagine your favorite beach filled with thousands of ducks and gulls. Now envision coming back a week later and finding condos being constructed on that spot. This many ducks in one place surely should indicate this spot is exceptionally good for birds and must be protected from development, right?

It depends, say Michigan State University researchers.

In a new paper published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, scientists show that conservation and construction decisions should rely on multiple approaches to determine waterbird "hotspots," not just on one analysis method as is often done.

"Waterbirds can move far in a short time, and they also are known to aggregate in clusters of hundreds or even thousands," said Elise Zipkin, MSU integrative biologist and study co-author. "Just because there are many birds in a particular location at a particular time, doesn't necessarily mean the location is a hotspot. It is important to distinguish whether that location is used repeatedly by the birds or if it is just a one-off use."

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Think millennials are apathetic about conservation? Think again

12 Apr 2019

If you think millennials are too busy looking at their phones to care about conservation, you haven’t met these young people. Every year, we grant funding and support to young people whose new, fresh ideas are changing the way we protect the planet. Here are this year’s winners.

By Sherilyn Bos

Today’s young people are going to be dealing with some of the biggest conservation challenges the planet has experienced – but we think they’re up to the task. That’s why we give up-and-coming conservationists the support they need to kick-start their careers through BirdLife Young Conservation Leaders (YCL) and the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP).

This year’s winners will be working across the Americas to protect threatened bird species and Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs). These projects are possible thanks to the generous support from the British Birdwatching Fair and The Aage V. Jensen Charity Foundation.

 Saving the Saffron-cowled Blackbird in Argentina

In the pampas grasslands of Argentina, a team lead by biologist Florencia Pucheta will be developing a strategy to protect the Saffron-cowled Blackbird Xanthopsar flavus (Vulnerable). Threatened by poaching and habitat loss from agriculture and livestock grazing, the Argentinian population of this brightly-coloured bird has dwindled to only 500-600 individuals confined to two isolated sites. In order to enact a conservation strategy, it is important to understand everything about the species. That’s why Pucheta’s team will be researching the bird’s distribution, reproduction, and many more aspects of its life before designing a well-informed plan of action.

The foundation of this project was laid by three years of hard work and dedication with minimal funding or support. Now, Pucheta and the team can take it to the next level. “It took us three years to study the species and learn from scratch, without any textbook or course, how to fundraise, build this amazing team with the local communities, deal with advocacy and politics and also determine our scientific approach. We feel profoundly fortunate and proud to be able to receive the support that the Young Conservation Leaders offers to young professionals,” says Pucheta.

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How birders helped pinpoint hotspots for migratory bird conservation

APRIL 15, 2019

by Richard Schuster, Amanda D. Rodewald, Joseph Bennett, Peter Arcese And Scott Wilson, The Conversation

Many bird populations are crashing, largely because they migrate such long distances and are at risk from human influence at every link in their migratory chain.

One favourite, the tiny Canada warbler, is among those that find themselves in trouble. Although this bird weighs only as much as a AAA battery, each spring it flies more than 5,500 kilometres from its winter home in South America to breed in Canada, stopping in Mexico, Texas and Michigan along the way. The Canada warbler makes this incredible journey as many as eight times over the course of its life.

Unfortunately, like many North American songbirds, the Canada warbler is at risk of extinction. Deforestation and human development projects are of the utmost concern to Canada warblers and other birds. More than one-third of North America's 1,154 bird species are suffering population declines.

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Conservation efforts pay off as endangered species moves in

By News Staff | 

Posted: Fri 2:46 PM, Mar 22, 2019

RICHMOND, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says a federally-endangered species have moved into a wildlife management area in Sussex County.

For the first time, the red-cockaded woodpecker has been documented in the Big Woods Wildlife Management Area.

The pair of birds are banded and came from the Nature Conservancy's Piney Grove Preserve, which abuts the management area.

According to a release, the preserve has long been the home of the only remaining population of the birds in Virginia, though DGIF reports a second population is in the process of being re-established in the Great Dismal National Wildlife Refuge by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the DGIF and other partners.

“The long-term commitment of our agency and its partners to acquire and actively manage the Big Woods WMA for red-cockaded woodpeckers and many other species is tremendous,” said DGIF Executive Director Bob Duncan. “The arrival of these red-cockaded woodpeckers at the WMA marks a major landmark in DGIF's conservation efforts for this endangered species. Under the federal Endangered Species Act, the DGIF has a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to serve as the lead agency for the conservation of protected animal species in Virginia, including red-cockaded woodpeckers.”

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Scientists are getting creative to save this muppet-faced, flightless parrot

The kakapo is down to its last 147 individuals. Now, scientists are using fitness trackers and semen-carrying drones to help the bird reproduce.

BY SARAH FELDBERG

PUBLISHED MARCH 5, 2019

INSIDE A HUT on remote Whenua Hou/Codfish Island off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island, there’s a chart on the refrigerator depicting the future of a species.

That species is the kakapo, an unusual, flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. The chart lists every breeding female kakapo on the planet—50 of them, with names like Pearl, Marama, and Hoki—and the status of their eggs: smiley faces for fertile eggs, straight lines for infertile ones, wings and legs for hatched chicks, and Xs for those that have died.

In the hopes of more smiley faces getting wings and fewer getting Xs, a team of scientists, rangers, and volunteers are working around the clock during the current breeding season, using 3D-printed smart eggs, activity trackers, and a sperm-toting drone nicknamed the "cloaca courier" to turn a record breeding year into a repopulation milestone and help this beloved bird step back from the brink.

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Hands-on management helps Scarlet Macaw in Guatemala

10/02/2019

Deep in the verdant forests of northern Guatemala, an exemplary crossover between field management and aviculture of techniques is taking place in order to nurture Scarlet Macaw chicks to independence.

This initiative is part of a long-term project of WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)-Guatemala, supported by the Loro Parque Fundación (LPF), for the conservation of the northern cyanoptera subspecies of Scarlet Macaw which, as implied by its scientific name, is differentiated by the greater extent of blue in the wings.

There is also another important distinction. Taking into account the huge geographical distribution of the nominate subspecies macao through South America north to Costa Rica, Scarlet Macaw is not recognised as a threatened species. By contrast, the northern subspecies, because of habitat loss and internal trade within its native countries, has disappeared from most of its former haunts and is threatened with extinction. For this reason, in 2002 WCS-Guatemala began the project in the Department of Petén, Guatemala, the area containing the most important remaining northern Scarlet Macaw nesting sites in the Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), especially El Peru, El Burral and La Corona. The project not only works to sustain the high concentration of active nests in this area, it also has importance to maintain the connectivity of northern Scarlet Macaw populations throughout the Selva Maya of Mexico and Guatemala, and potentially with the Belizean population.

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Possible Oahu populations offer new hope for Hawaiian seabirds

January 22, 2019, American Ornithological Society

The two seabird species unique to Hawaii, Newell's Shearwaters and Hawaiian Petrels, are the focus of major conservation efforts—at risk from habitat degradation, invasive predators, and other threats, their populations plummeted 94% and 78% respectively between 1993 and 2013. However, a new study in The Condor: Ornithological Applications offers hope of previously undetected colonies of these birds on the island of Oahu, from which they were believed to have vanished by the late 1700s.

Shearwaters and petrels nest colonially in crevices, burrows, and under vegetation at mid to high elevations. They currently breed on other Hawaiian islands including Kauai and Maui, but were both believed to have extirpated from Oahu prior to European contact in 1778; biologists believed that occasional records from the island were birds thrown off-course at night by city lights.

Pacific Rim Conservation's Lindsay Young and her colleagues used a spatial model based on elevation, forest cover, and illumination to identify potential suitable breeding habitat for both species on Oahu, then deployed automated acoustic recording units at 16 sites on the island to listen for the birds' calls in 2016 and 2017, accessing remote mountain locations via helicopter. To their surprise, they detected petrels at one site and shearwaters at two sites.

"We were doing a statewide survey for these species for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of recovery action planning, but Oahu was not initially included as one of the sites to survey, since evidence suggested they weren't there," says Young. "Since we're Oahu-based, we thought we would at least put a few recording units out to see if there was anything. And we were surprised, to say the least, that we not only had calls detected, but detected both species across two years."

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Conservation project sees threatened birds return

13:28, Dec 14 2018

A tourism company's efforts to put conservation at the heart of their operations appears to be bearing fruit as native birds flock back to Rotorua's Dansey Road Scenic Reserve.

Forest zipline company Canopy Tours has just finalised its bi-annual monitoring and trap resetting and found little evidence of dead predators across their 515 traps. 

The intensive pest control programme has been running for five years and Canopy Tours conservation lead Scott Davis said it was inspiring to see native birds return.

"It's really exciting to see different species coming back and a greater number of all species in the reserve. The tangible impact of five years of conservation blitzes is a win for all Kiwis," Davis said.

Recent new arrivals to flock back to the reserve are more sightings of Kārearea (New Zealand Falcon), our nation's only threatened bird of prey with only 3000-5000 breeding pairs left in existence, along with two species of cuckoo - Pīpīwharauroa (Green Shining Cuckoo) and the Koekoeā (Long Tail Cuckoo).

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Bird migration and conservation clues in robin and Turtle dove genomes

December 21, 2018, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The European robin and Turtle dove have had their genetic codes sequenced and assembled for the first time by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The genomes, completed today (21 December) will enable researchers to explore the genetic switches controlling bird migration and give insight into the magneto receptors that help robins 'see' the Earth's magnetic fields for navigation. The Turtle dove genome will help conservation efforts to save one of the UK's fastest declining bird species.

European robins live throughout Europe, Russia and western Siberia. While most British robins reside in the UK over winter, some birds will migrate to southern Europe to overwinter in warmer climates. Simultaneously in winter, migrant robins from Scandinavia, continental Europe and Russia head to the UK to avoid the harsh weather back home.

Turtle doves also migrate, visiting their breeding grounds in Europe and spending the winter months in Africa. However, since 1995, 94 per cent of Turtle doves have been lost and there are fewer than 5,000 breeding pairs left in the UK. The Turtle dove is the UK's fastest-declining bird species, and as a result, they are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

Migration patterns and behaviours vary across species, but also within species. Similarly, environmental pressures such as disease and limited food resources affect various bird species differently. To fully understand the genetic components of complex traits, such as migration and breeding, the whole genetic code must be read and analysed.

The European robin and Turtle dove's genomes were read by the Sanger Institute and its partners, in celebration of Sanger's 25th anniversary.

Collaborators at the University of Lincoln sent robin and Turtle dove samples to the Sanger Institute near Cambridge. The sequencing teams extracted DNA from the samples and used PacBio SMRT Sequencing technology to generate the first reference genomes for robins and Turtle doves.

The European robin genome will enable researchers to explore the genetic switches underpinning migration, which tell robins when to leave and where to go. The robin's role as a model of bird migration will help in understanding the magneto receptors in birds' eyes that allow them to use the Earth's magnetic fields for navigation and also unpick migratory behaviour in other bird species.

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Con­ser­va­tion areas help bird­life ad­apt to cli­mate change

Date: November 12, 2018

Source: University of Helsinki

A warming climate is pushing organisms towards the circumpolar areas and mountain peaks. A recently conducted study on changes in bird populations reveals that protected areas slow down the north-bound retreat of species.

A warming climate is pushing organisms towards the circumpolar areas and mountain peaks. A recently conducted Finnish study on changes in bird populations reveals that protected areas slow down the north-bound retreat of species.

As the climate warms up, the belts of current climate conditions move further north, forcing species to follow the climate suited to them. At the same time, environmental transformation by humans is causing problems. Species are experiencing great difficulties in adapting simultaneously to a decrease in the quality of their habitat and the pressure brought on by climate change.

The study investigated changes in the abundance of bird species inside and outside conservation areas over five decades. According to observations made by the researchers, conservation areas are excellent habitats for many species. These areas help northern bird species maintain their abundances on the southern boundary of their current area of distribution, while helping certain southern bird species spread to new territories on the northern boundary of their distribution area.

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Houbara conservation helps improve people’s lives in 17 countries

UAE’s International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC) has produced 400,000 houbara, senior official says

Published: 19:44 November 4, 2018

Binsal Abdul Kader, Senior Reporter

Abu Dhabi: A long-term effort to protect an endangered bird has helped improve lives of many villagers in 17 countries, according to a senior official.

The UAE has been carrying out an ambitious programme since 1970s to conserve the houbara bustard, a large-bodied bird, with long legs and a slender neck that has been synonymous with Arab culture and an integral part of traditional Emirati hunts.

This programme has helped socio-economic development around protected areas in the bird’s range countries, from Morocco to Mongolia, a top official told Gulf News on Sunday.

“The houbara conservation programme has made a positive impact on ecosystems [in those countries]. The life comes back easily there and flora and fauna grow up, which helps improve the agriculture [in the surrounding areas]. This enriches the livelihood of farmers and farmworkers,” said Dr Thani Bin Ahmad Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment.

The houbara habitats are hotspots of recreational hunting that has augmented ecotourism, offering opportunities of jobs and enterprises for local communities, he said on the sidelines of an international summit on the conservation of the houbara in Abu Dhabi, organised by the UAE’s International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC).

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Nighthawks' migration route tracked in search of clues to species' steep decline

In a quest to develop conservation strategies to protect a threatened species whose population has declined 80 per cent in the last 50 years, scientists at the University of Alberta have discovered the enigmatic nighthawk travels 20,000 kilometres each year in its annual migration from north of Fort McMurray to the Amazon rainforest in Brazil.

"Until now, we've understood very little about migration routes and wintering grounds of the nighthawk," explained Elly Knight, a Ph.D. candidate who worked on the research project with her colleague Janet Ng, U of A conservation biologist Erin Bayne and researchers from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Washington, D.C.

The research team needed to track the nighthawk to understand what risks it might encounter during the eight months it spends outside of Canada each year.

"We were surprised to find that they spent their winter in Brazil because most observations of them are from further south, in Argentina. We also learned that nighthawks return to almost exactly where they summered in the past year," said Knight.

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Return of strip-field farming creates haven for rare species in south Wales

National Trust trial of 13th century method used until 1940s transforms stretch of Gower peninsula coast

Steven Morris

Wed 29 Aug 2018 18.00 BSTLast modified on Wed 29 Aug 2018 21.02 BST

A pioneering farming project using field management techniques dating back to the 13th century has transformed a stretch of coast into a haven for endangered animals, birds, insects and wildflowers.

The experimental return to “strip-field farming” close to the spectacular Rhossili Bay on the Gower peninsula in south Wales is being credited with a threefold increase in the number of species of wildflowers and the appearance of rare birds such as the hen harrier and grasshopper warbler.

As many as 63 butterflies were spotted in 60 seconds in one of the strip fields at the Vile, compared with a maximum of six in neighbouring pastures that are farmed conventionally.

The Vile, which is old English for strip fields, was farmed in the old-fashioned way until the late 1940s. Shortages then led to the intensification of agriculture across the UK including, to a more limited extent, the Vile.

The National Trust, which owns around three-quarters of the 111 acre site, launched a project to wholly restore the strip fields two years ago. Rangers and 80 volunteers have created 2,000 metres of banks and hedges that had been removed to satisfy the demands of heavily mechanised farming, turning six fields into a patchwork of 17 different areas. The plots rejoice in names such as Bramble Bush, Sandyland and Priest Hay.

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Newly sequenced golden eagle genome will help its conservation

September 3, 2018, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Conservation and monitoring efforts for the golden eagle will benefit from the newly-completed golden eagle genome sequence – the first of 25 species' genomes sequenced by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh.

The golden eagle genome, released today (31 August), will help scientists and conservationists understand the diversity and viability of the species worldwide. It will ultimately aid the monitoring of existing, reinforced and reintroduced populations of golden eagles, such as those in the South of Scotland Golden Eagle translocation project, which aims to bolster the protected species' population.

There are around 300,000 golden eagles worldwide, with between 9,300-12,300 pairs living in Europe. Despite being listed as 'least concern' by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and having widespread populations worldwide, the 508 breeding pairs of golden eagles in the UK are largely restricted to the Scottish Highlands and Islands.

The Scottish population is on the edge of the global range, and many existing world populations are small and declining.

For the first time, the golden eagle has had its genome sequenced by the Sanger Institute and its partners, in celebration of Sanger's 25th anniversary.

The genome will enable additional studies of golden eagles and will help in the conservation and monitoring of the species. The genetic information will aid in identifying populations or individuals that might be best involved in any reintroduction or other conservation projects.

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Yellowhammer: Farmers urged to save 'iconic bird'

By Conor MacauleyBBC NI Agriculture & Environment Correspondent

21 August 2018

Declines in iconic farmland birds like the yellowhammer can be reversed by sympathetic farming, a study by a leading conservation charity has said.

And farmers can get a payment for simple measures which will enhance their numbers.

The brightly-coloured bird has been in huge decline in Northern Ireland due to the diminishing crop sector.

This means there is less suitable habitat and seed which they rely on for food.

But the RSPB says a five-year study shows the collapse in numbers can be turned around.

It surveyed five priority species - including the yellowhammer - on 33 farms in County Down which signed up to agri-environment schemes.

They give farmers a payment for measures which enhance biodiversity.

The results were compared to 22 control farms which did not participate.

Participating farmers planted wild bird cover; grew taller hedges and allowed field margins of rough vegetation to provide cover and food.

The survey results showed yellowhammer numbers increased by 78%. Linnets and tree sparrows are also up.

Cereal farmer Jack Kelly is involved in the project.

Read on  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-45259101