WITH A BIT OF HABITAT-MANAGEMENT HELP, CIRL BUNTING IS ON ROAD TO RECOVERY

                                              

Bouncebackability! The cirl bunting (photo: Paco Gómez, via Wikimedia Commons) 

A BRITISH songbird which looked doomed to extinction at the turn of the century is continuing its remarkable comeback.

The cirl bunting went into steep decline when changes in farming practices reduced its habitat and food sources.

But according to the National Trust, this farmland  species' population has increased from just over 100 pairs in the 1980s to about 1,078 pairs today.

How come?

The NT worked with the RSPB and farmers in South Devon to make conditions favourable, for instance by reverting to spring-grown barley instead of autumn-grown cereal crops.

In addition, diligent management provided a mosaic of differing age and structure of gorse and scrub for nesting in plus large areas of open grassland for feeding on insects and seeds.

Thanks to the progress of the project, cirl buntings have been re-introduced to other parts of Devon and neighbouring Cornwall from where they had been lost.

The hope is that long-term that they could spread to other counties, for instance Sussex where they were once a familiar sight at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne. 

The word 'cirl' is said to derived from an Italian word, meaning 'chirp'.