Taskforce set up by Heather Humphreys to save native curlews

The extraordinary 97 per cent decline in the number of native curlews breeding in Ireland since the 1980s has led to Minister for Heritage Heather Humphreys setting up a taskforce to save the Irish curlew.

A national survey carried out in 2015 and 2016 found there were only 122 breeding pairs remaining.

As recently as 30 years ago there were 5,000 breeding pairs living in upland, marshy and marginal land.

While Ireland is home to thousands of visiting curlew each winter, particularly along the coasts where migrant birds come to escape colder weather in Scotland and Scandinavia, the national breeding population has come under serious threat.

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‘Serious concern’

“The decline of the curlew is of serious concern,” the Minister said. “My department and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have already worked closely together in prioritising curlew locations for entry to Glas and in developing a measure that works for both the farmers and the birds.”

Glas is Ireland’s new agri-environment scheme, part of the rural development programme.

The curlew is one of Ireland’s most distinctive birds, with long legs and a long, curved bill. It has a haunting and evocative cry celebrated in songs and poems.

Native curlews can be found in the Stack’s mountains near Tralee, Co Kerry, parts of Lough Corrib and the midlands around Halothane. But even the Curlew mountains in Co Sligo can no longer guarantee the cry of the bird on a summer’s evening.

‘Positive initiatives’

Ms Humphreys said she was “hopeful that by working together and in particular by supporting positive initiatives for the bird, we can save the curlew”.

Dr Barry O’Donoghue of the National Parks and Wildlife Service said changes in the farming of marginal lands was likely the cause of the decline.

“The curlew is a bit like Goldilocks – the land can not be farmed too intensively or be abandoned, it has to be just right,” he said.

“You won’t hear it in most parts – this is really an alarm call for us in terms of our natural heritage,” he added.

It is Ireland’s only species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list of endangered species. It is also a red-listed species on the Birds of Conservation Concern in Ireland list.