Spoonbills return to E for first time since 17th century

With their long, spoon-shaped beaks, it is perhaps little surprise that the RSPB has nicknamed the offspring of a spoonbill a “teaspoon”.

It has been a bumper year for the snow-white wading birds, which have been found nesting and breeding in Cambridgeshire for the first time since the 17th century.

Once quite common in the UK, spoonbills were occasionally seen on their migratory journey, but no longer bred here because they were hunted for their meat and the wetland habitats in which they use their long beaks to fish for prey had been destroyed.

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But conservation efforts mean they have come back and are now breeding happily in a few pockets of habitat in England, particularly at the first point where they resettled, the Holkham estate in north Norfolk, where they continue to thrive. The largest population is there, producing 90 fledged birds in 2023.

The RSPB said 2024 has been a great breeding season on their reserves for the distinctive birds, particularly at Havergate Island in Suffolk and Fairburn Ings in Yorkshire. And, for the first time since the 17th century, spoonbills have nested in Cambridgeshire at RSPB Ouse Washes.

Jonathan Taylor, the senior site manager, said: “The Ouse Washes are the perfect habitat for spoonbills and we are delighted to have these birds breeding for first time. Although they are breeding later here compared with other spoonbills in the UK, as is often the case with new colonies, it is fantastic that this iconic and highly adapted heron species has returned and is using our wetlands once again.”

Nine “teaspoons” have fledged so far this year at RSPB Fairburn Ings, near Leeds, where spoonbills have been nesting for eight consecutive years.

Karen Swaffield, the warden, said: “It’s tremendously exciting to have spoonbills here, and early indications are that they have had yet another successful breeding year. We nicknamed baby spoonbills ‘teaspoons’ in 2017 and the name has stuck. We’re thrilled that the spoonbills have been here for eight years in a row, and we really hope this means they are here to stay. If the last pair which are currently nest-building manage to fledge a chick, we will have had a record year, so we are all on tenterhooks to see what happens next.”