White-tailed eagles return to Exmoor National Park - Exmoor National Park

The return of white-tailed eagles to England has taken another step forward with the release of six young birds in Exmoor National Park, the first to be reintroduced here after they disappeared due to persecution over two hundred years ago.

The releases are part of a project started in 2019 by Forestry England and the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation to restore this lost species, and the key role it plays in supporting biodiversity, to England. Since then, 45 white-tailed eagles have been released from the Isle of Wight. Several are now breeding and in 2023 the project celebrated the first white tailed eagle chick to be born in the wild in southern England since 1780.

Zoe Smith from the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation said: “White-tailed eagles would have once been common natural sight across the south west of England. After so many years absent from this landscape it is a special moment to be returning them on Exmoor. We will closely monitor their progress as they explore and, in time, begin to settle across this region. Thank you to everyone in the local community who is working with us to support the return of these magnificent birds.”