UK’s first breeding spoonbill colony for 300 years

SPECIAL SIGHT: A spoonbill and chick. Picture: Andrew Bloomfield

September 2010: This summer, the emerald marshes of Holkham National Nature Reserve in Norfolk have been hosting a unique breakthrough for one of the UK's rarest breeding birds.

The spoonbill - which has bred only four times in Britain in the last three centuries - has had a stunning success at Holkham, and for the first time in over 300 years the UK has its own breeding colony of these beautiful crane-like birds.

Found a home among cormorants, grey herons and egrets
Careful monitoring has confirmed that four nesting pairs have now fledged a total of six young, with at least a further two pairs still feeding their young in nests. At no time since the early 1700s has more than one spoonbill bred in the UK and conservationists are hoping that the unique breeding success at Holkham will not be a one-off.

Spoonbills are named after their rather comical broad bills which they elegantly sweep through water to feed. Sightings of one or two spring passage birds are typical for North Norfolk, but attention was aroused when a total of nine spoonbills - mostly adults in full breeding plumage - arrived in the area. The spoonbills set up home in the mixed breeding colony of cormorants, grey herons and little egrets already on the site.

Visits to the secluded breeding site were kept to a minimum to avoid disturbing the birds but it soon became clear that one adult bird was sitting on a nest with several other adults present in the surrounding area.

Hopes of a permanent colony
Michael Rooney, Natural England's Senior Reserve Manager at Holkham National Nature Reserve said: ‘A lot of careful work has gone into creating and managing ideal habitats for a range of nesting birds at Holkham NNR, so it is very exciting that the reserve has become a safe haven for a breeding colony of spoonbills. As several pairs nested successfully this year, we hope that the birds will return and establish a permanent colony in future years.'

Natural England manages the freshwater marshes at Holkham to cater specifically for wetland breeding birds. Maintaining high water levels through the spring into mid-summer is critical and has resulted in a dramatic increase in the population of many breeding species. The nesting colony is surrounded by water and is therefore safe from predators, while the presence of pools in adjacent fields provides nearby feeding opportunities for the adults raising hungry chicks.

Michael Rooney continued: ‘Many of the spoonbills that visit Holkham and other areas of England originate from the increasing breeding population in the Netherlands. As numbers have been increasing in Western Europe in recent years, expectations have been high that spoonbills would soon colonise Britain. White-plumed spoonbill chicks taking their first flight above the Norfolk marshes is something we hope will become an annual occurrence on the Holkham NNR.'