That's it, then! Tragically, the Slender-billed Curlew has gone the same way as the Great Auk - and that's official

 Gone forever! This is  a painting of the bird from John Gould's Birds of Europe (1837) 

IT looks like the birding world has now, sadly,  given up on the Slender-billed Curlew.

The last example of this migratory species was recorded in a photograph taken at Merja Zerga in Morocco in 1995.

Since then, despite extensive and intensive searches - particularly in its traditional bogland breeding habitat in southern Russia and northern Kazakhstan - there have been no incontrovertible sightings.

The RSPB, the British Ornithologists' Union and the rest of the global birding community has therefore, with reluctance, decided to declare the bird globally extinct.

Since the 1500s, other British and European species have suffered the same fate - notably the Great Auk on an island off Iceland  in 1844.

Another European 'gonna' has been the Canary Islands Oystercatcher which was declared extinct in 1994, not having been since the 1940s.

But these two were largely island species, while the Slender-billed Curlew used to be found across the European mainland.

Historically, there have  been a handful of reported 'sightings' in Britain, though contemporary experts have discounted them as unreliable. The bird no longer features on the British List.

What have  been the reasons for the species spiral into extinction?

Pressures are likely to have included extensive drainage of boglands for agricultural use, the loss of coastal wetland habitat where it used to spend winter and, even when it was known to be endangered, hunting.

Pollution, disease, predation, and climate change may have also been factors.

Says the RSPB's Nicola Crockford: "This is one of the most fundamentally devastating stories to come out of nature conservation in a century.

"It gets to the very heart of why the RSPB and our partners  are doing what we do; that is, ultimately, to prevent extinction of species. 

"This is the first known global extinction of a bird from mainland Europe, North Africa and West Asia.

"This has happened in our lifetimes. 

"How can we expect countries beyond Europe to step up for their species when our comparatively wealthy countries have failed?"

A slightly larger cousin of the bird is the Eurasian Curlew which, at this time of year, is often to be seen  feeding on the mudflats and in the saltmarshes of Cleethorpes and Grimsby, sometimes venturing on to school playing fields later in winter.

But this species, too, is in serious decline. 

If we are not careful, it, could also be lost.