Curlews are one of our most beloved birds, and their haunting call has inspired artists, poets, farmers and nature-lovers for generations. Yet their future is under threat: in just the last 20 years, the UK has lost half of its breeding population of Curlews.
[1] 51% (1995 to 2023) Source: BTO Bird Facts
Locally, this decline has largely been driven by loss of wetland and meadow habitat, intensive grassland management practices, predation from animals such as Foxes and Crows and the impacts of building and transport developments.
Here in Oxfordshire, we have an important role to play in determining the fate of this iconic bird. Our county is home to 10 per cent of the UK’s remaining lowland Curlew population, and over the past five years we’ve been working alongside other charities, teams of fantastic volunteers and a network of supportive farmers to try to halt this loss. Together, we’ve protected 110 nests using temporary electric fencing, resulting in an 74% hatching success rate—a huge improvement compared to the national average of 25%. Thanks to these efforts, 61 young curlews have fledged.
Despite the proven success of these techniques, progress has not yet been sufficient to fledge enough chicks to sustain the population for the future. We are still at risk of losing Curlews and their wonderful evocative calls from Oxfordshire’s meadows and wetlands forever.
Curlew Recovery Project
From 2021 to 2023 Wild Oxfordshire hosted our first Curlew Recovery Project with funding from Natural England. The project was organised through a partnership of organisations, including NE, RSPB, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT), Banbury Ornithological Society, Freshwater Habitats Trust, and the River Thame Conservation Trust.
This initiative enabled partner organisations to scale up the impact volunteers can a make by providing training (including nest finding and fencing) and much-needed resources, including electric fencing kits. Volunteers contributed over 1000 hours of fieldwork each year, an awesome achievement, and around 30 farmers provided invaluable support and local knowledge to enable the project to succeed.
Curlew River
In 2023 we worked with Nicola Shafer to create a film about Curlews in the Upper Thames, from the perspective of the people helping to protect them. ‘Curlew River’ proved a huge success and has been viewed over 15,000 times on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6nL4ZI2cac
Curlew Solutions Trial
For the past two years Wild Oxfordshire has organised fieldwork for the ‘Curlew Solutions Trial’ led by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and with great support locally from RSPB, Natural England, BBOWT, and Banbury Ornithological Society. This initiative aims to improve our understanding of Curlews breeding in grasslands to provide evidence of the effectiveness of conservation efforts to policy makers. Spread across 5 sites in England –Yorkshire Dales, Shropshire Hills, Breckland, Severn and Avon Vales and the Upper Thames - the project includes novel research to assess what influences breeding success across project landscapes.
Here in Oxfordshire, we carried out extra fieldwork to monitor breeding activity in more detail, including interactions with avian predators. BTO scientists are currently analysing the wealth of data collected and will report early in 2026. The two fieldwork seasons were dramatically different, with a very wet conditions prevailing in 2024 and quite the opposite in 2025. This resulted in few chicks fledging in 2024 – just twelve, whereas in 2025 at least 15 fledged, with another two probably fledging as well. In fact, 2025 was our most successful season for fledged Curlews so far.
The next stage – Curlew Partnership
We need to scale up our activities further if we are to ensure that Curlews can thrive throughout the Upper Thames in the long term. That’s why we’re launching a Crowdfunder that will run for the next six weeks. We have secured match funding of up to £10,000 from both the Trust for Oxfordshire’s Environment and the Aviva Community Fund. Every £1 you give will be multiplied!
We have six weeks to raise £25,000 - the same time it takes for these beautiful, freshly hatched, Curlew chicks to grow towards adulthood and take their first flight!
Your donation will help our partnership of charities, volunteers and farmers to protect more nests with electric fencing and provide the best conditions for Curlew chicks to thrive.
Curlews return to the same breeding sites each year, so while there are still birds coming back here, there is still hope.
Please donate to our Crowdfunder, so that together we can make sure the Curlew’s song continues to be heard on spring mornings throughout Oxfordshire’s meadows.
For further information please check out the Curlew page of the Wild Oxfordshire website, including project newsletters for the past two years:
https://www.wildoxfordshire.org.uk/projects/curlew
Acknowledgements
Particular thanks to Anne Cotton (Natural England), Jan Guilbride (Banbury Ornithological Society) and David Wilding (RSPB) for their unwavering support over the past five years of Curlew Recovery, especially with the Curlew Solutions Trial fieldwork. Thanks also to fieldwork volunteer and photographer Mark Hunter for use of his excellent images taken this season.
This work would not have been possible without the support and enthusiasm of many farmers and nature reserve staff, and our extremely dedicated group of volunteers.
We are very grateful for the financial support received from Natural England over the past five years, from their Species Recovery Programme.
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