Threatened U.K. bird species has comeback

One of Britain's most threatened bird species, the stone-curlew, has officially emerged from the brink of extinction, experts say.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said numbers of breeding stone-curlews in England have risen to more than 300 pairs, the Independent reported Friday.

The stone-curlew, about the length of a crow but slimmer and with much longer wings, had declined since World War II. Before the war, more than 1,000 breeding pairs were tallied in England, but following the war, the bird's habitat was lost to arable farming and forestry.

"This has been a great success story. There is no doubt that without conservation work the stone-curlew may no longer have been a U.K. breeding bird by now," said Robin Wynde, RSPB biodiversity policy officer. "It has come back from the brink."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International