Bird charities 'choughed' as numbers increase again

The numbers of birds bred in Cornwall is on the up

Conservationists in Cornwall are hailing the role the daughter of a pioneering pair of choughs for helping their numbers recover after a "remarkable year" as more than 100 choughlets bred successfully for the third successive year.

The RSPB said 48 breeding pairs of choughs raised 129 young birds in the county this year - 15 more than in 2024.

Choughs are the symbol of Cornwall but the bird became extinct in the county 50 years ago until 2001, when three birds arrived on the The Lizard from Ireland.

Hilary Mitchell and Steve Ashby, from Cornwall Birds, said the daughter of the pioneering pair had surpassed their record of 46 young, raising her 48th chick this year.

She is based in western Cornwall at an undisclosed location and some of her young are now parents too.

It had been "another incredibly productive breeding season", which was helping the bird recover from "a precariously balanced" recovery in 2013 when the pioneering pair disappeared, said Ms Mitchell and Mr Ashby.

Volunteers who monitored them and kept them safe were "devastated".

Ms Mitchell said: "The future of the Cornish chough looked at risk with the loss of such an iconic and productive pair."

Choughs were extinct in Cornwall for 50 years

Teeanna Cleary-Skelton, the RSPB's chough conservation officer in Cornwall, said this year marked the 20th birthday of a male chough fledged from the nest of the original Lizard pair.

He is the the oldest Cornish chough recorded and is part of the three pairs this year who managed to successfully fledge five choughlets this year - the highest number of fledglings recorded for a single nest so far, she said.

The RSPB said the "amazing conservation success story" saw the number of successful breeding pairs increase from five in 2013 to nearly 50 in 2025.

Just 14 chicks fledged in 2013, compared with 129 this year, "roughly 10 times" more pairs and choughlets in "just 12 years."

Cornwall supports the only established breeding population in England, with populations elsewhere in the UK and the world thought to be declining, threatened by a loss of grazing along the coastal, the RSPB said.

Mr Ashby said: "No-one back in 2001, when three chough arrived on The Lizard from Ireland, would have imagined this level of success was even possible."

People are encouraged to report their sightings to the bird news team at Cornwall Birds.