New report reveals the return of rare breeding bird species - British Trust for Ornithology (BTO)
The latest report by the Rare Breeding Birds Panel (RBBP), the independent body that monitors the populations of the UK’s rarest breeding birds, celebrates the return of two species to the UK with both being proven to breed in 2023 for the first time since the 1990s.
A pair of Hoopoes succeeded in raising three young from a nest in farmland in Leicestershire and Rutland. This distinctive species from southern Europe, its plumage a combination of salmon-pink and zebra stripes with a flamboyant crest, has bred sporadically in the UK for almost 200 years, but had been absent as a breeding species since 1996 when a pair bred in Wales. Before that there were four pairs in England in 1977, and there are a further 36 records of breeding in England dating back to 1835. The Hoopoe is a species of warm climates, being found from southern Europe across Asia as far as Japan, and south of the Sahara in Africa. It breeds in nest holes in trees and sometimes buildings, and uses its long curved bill to search for invertebrates in the ground.
Further north, a pair of Temminck’s Stint laid four eggs at a wetland site in Highland in 2023, though unfortunately the nest was washed out by rising water levels. This tiny wading bird was a regular, although extremely rare, breeder at small a number of sites in northern Scotland between 1969 and 1997, before disappearing. Birds have been returning to a secret Scottish location since 2021, but 2023 was the first time that a nesting attempt was confirmed.
The RBBP report also reveals that 15 species reached record totals in 2023. These include the White-tailed Eagle, with 160 pairs reported in the UK. This eagle, the UK’s largest raptor, continues to increase in Scotland following a reintroduction programme which began in 1975. A more recent project has been releasing White-tailed Eagles on the Isle of Wight since 2019, resulting in a pair breeding in Sussex in 2023 – the first nest in England since 1780. Another recovering bird of prey, the Marsh Harrier, topped 500 pairs for the first time – when the RBBP first began monitoring the UK’s rarest breeding birds in 1973 there were just six breeding females.
Posted On: 05/11/2025
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