World Curlew Day marked by Irish conservation breakthrough

First return of headstarted curlew

The ninth annual World Curlew Day on 21 April brought welcome news from Ireland, where two ministers announced the first recorded instance of a headstarted curlew returning to establish a breeding territory on the island.

The bird, released in County Leitrim in 2024, has been discovered at a breeding site in Sliabh Beagh, County Fermanagh, where it has now settled with a mate. The result was hailed as proof that headstarting, which involves rearing eggs in captivity before releasing them as fledglings, can produce birds capable of surviving and breeding in the wild.

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Government response

Christopher O’Sullivan TD, Ireland’s minister for nature, heritage and biodiversity, said the news showed that “collaboration, science and innovation” were working. “We now have powerful evidence that this technique can produce birds capable of surviving migration and returning to breed in the wild on the island of Ireland,” he said.

Curlew numbers in Ireland have fallen by 98% since the 1980s, a collapse driven largely by predation on eggs and chicks, which are acutely vulnerable as ground-nesting birds. The headstarting programme, which addresses that vulnerability by protecting eggs through the critical early stages, is funded by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and the Irish Department of Agriculture.