Nest belonging to 'remarkable' endangered bird found

Nest belonging to 'remarkable' endangered bird foundJust nowShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleGetty ImagesThe curlew was once common across Northern IrelandFootage of an endangered bird with a nest and eggs has been described as "remarkable".A video of the curlew was posted on social media by the Sliabh Beagh Curlew Conservation Trust on Saturday. The Trust said: "For a species that has declined by over 98% in Ireland since the 1980s, this is a genuinely significant and hopeful conservation milestone."The curlew was once a common sight, but numbers have fallen in recent years and there are now thought to be just 150 breeding pairs of curlews left in Northern Ireland.Donal Beagan, Nest Protection and Headstarting Manager at Breeding Waders EIP project, said finding this bird with the nest and eggs is "really exciting".Breeding on home groundDonal BeaganThe curlew is part of a conservation programme on Sliabh Beagh which aims to increase numbers of the rare bird Las month a pair of curlews were located in the Sliabh Beagh area, which straddles the border between Counties Tyrone and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, and County Monaghan in the Republic of Ireland. After closer examination it was discovered one of the curlews had coloured rings on its legs meaning that it was a "headstarted bird from 2024".Beagan explained the headstart initiative "as an emergency measure to boost populations" of birds. It sees vulnerable curlew nests taken from the wild and artificially incubated. When the eggs hatch, the birds are then reared to point of fledge. "Once they are past that really risky stage of their life and they are able to fly they are released into the environment," Beagan explained.Beagan said this nesting bird was particularly exciting as it is the "first record we have had of headstarting curlew being back on breeding grounds and potentially breeding".He said it had "a lot of signifi...