In this blog, conservationists will share their experiences and insights from headstarting projects taking place in England. Presentations will cover local population trends, the motivations behind their initiatives, and the duration of these projects. Presentations will also showcase examples of indoor and outdoor facilities, address veterinary considerations, and provide updates on post-release monitoring and survival rates (where these are available).

• Curlew Recovery Partnership
• Curlew Fieldworker Toolkit

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Curlew Country (Shropshire)

Amanda Perkins (Curlew Country)

Based in the Shropshire Hills and Welsh Border, Curlew Country has been working closely with local land managers, volunteers, as well as the wider community to deliver real landscape-scale conservation in a short time frame. The presentation will discuss the Curlew Country journey to headstarting, a bit about the procedure and what they know so far.

Amanda Perkins designed and leads the Curlew Country initiative. Curlew Country is a comparatively small independent curlew recovery organisation operative since 2015.

Further Info

• Curlew Country
• Curlew Country headstarting videos
• Keeper of the Call short film
• Chick release video
• Curlew Country Instagram
• Curlew Country Facebook
• Curlew Country YouTube

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Severn & Avon Vale and Dartmoor Projects

Eric Heath (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)

With multiple partners including the government conservation agency (Natural England), WWT has been involved in an initiative to test the use for headstarting of curlew eggs that are licensed for destruction because they are a risk to aviation safety. Initially, WWT ran a trial in the Severn Vale during 2019, aiming to test the potential of headstarting to improve the fortunes of a small (~35 pair) and declining curlew population in an area of lowland floodplain grassland. From 2021, WWT has been a partner in a project to restore curlew populations in a farmed upland area in Dartmoor National Park, where the habitat is in restoration but the curlew population has reached critically low levels. We report on experience and results to date.

Eric Heath is the Senior Project Manager (Species Recovery) for WWT and leadatheir species conservation work. At the moment this is focused primarily in the smooth running of the various Curlew conservation projects they are involved in whilst also looking at the future of our Black-tailed Godwit and Corncrake projects. He sits in the UK Programmes team but work closely with Conservation Evidence, the Breeding Conservation Unit and the Reserves teams. His role is also forward looking, identifying and developing new species conservation projects. Eric has been working in the environmental sector for almost 20 years now. This has included roles as an ecological and arboricultural consultant. He has also worked as the Head of Land Management for Avon Wildlife Trust, a Senior Conservation Officer for Natural Resources Wales and a Planning ecologist for South Gloucestershire Council.

Further Info

• Severn & Avon Vale Project
• Dartmoor Project

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East of England Curlew Recovery Project

Dr Katharine Bowgen (British Trust for Ornithology)
Chrissie Kelley (Pensthorpe Conservation Trust)

The East of England Curlew Recovery Project is working in Norfolk to take eggs from airbases that were scheduled for destruction and rearing them for release as headstarted curlews. Their movements following release are monitored in the hope of seeing them return to breeding areas in Norfolk.

Dr Katharine Bowgen is a Senior Research Ecologist with the BTO, split between BTO Cymru and the Wetland and Marine Teams. She principally works with wader populations in the UK, observing their behaviours and habitat choices through the year.

Chrissie Kelley has worked in aviculture for 30 years specialising in waterfowl and waders. She has been involved with species reintroduction projects for Eurasian cranes, corncrake and most recently, leading curlew headstarting in Norfolk UK.

Further Info

• East of England Curlew Recovery Project
• Watch the project film: ‘A Curlew Calls’
• Latest project news
• Report a colour-marked headstarted bird

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The Southern England Curlew Project

Charlie Mellor (Norfolk Estate, Sussex)
Dr Christopher J. Heward (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust)

The GWCT and Norfolk Estate, Sussex, have been headstarting Curlews to establish a breeding curlew population on the South Downs. The aim of the South Downs project is to determine whether headstarting is an effective technique for reintroducing curlew to southern England. this talk will provide and overview of the Southern England Curlew Project to date.

Charlie Mellor is the Head Gamekeeper on the Duke of Norfolks estate at Arundel. The Estate is renowned for its farmland bird recovery project in particular Grey Partridge. They are now starting their third year of a five year curlew headstarting project.

Dr Christopher J. Heward is the Head of Wetlands Research at the GWCT, and is responsible for the monitoring of the Southern England Curlew Project.

Further Info

• Southern England Curlew Project

In this blog, conservationists will share their experiences and insights from headstarting projects across Europe. Presentations will cover local and national population trends, the motivations behind their initiatives, and the duration of these projects. Presentations will also showcase examples of indoor and outdoor facilities, address veterinary considerations, and provide updates on post-release monitoring and survival rates.

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A Review of Curlew Headstarting Projects in Europe

Dr Sam Franks (British Trust for Ornithology)

Headstarting is now a commonly used tool in wader conservation, and over the last five years has become increasingly popular in efforts to conserve the Eurasian curlew, a wader species that has declined by 30-49% over the last 35 years in Europe. Here, Sam uses questionnaire and data request responses to review the reasons for, the methods used, and outcomes of eleven curlew headstarting projects from five European countries. Sam aims to provide an overview of current understanding and identify knowledge gaps to inform future headstarting projects.

Dr Samantha Franks’ interests focus on exploring how our changing environment is impacting threatened bird populations. She oversees BTO’s breeding wader research, with a particular focus on Curlew and working in partnership to develop evidence-based conservation management strategies for waders.

Further Info

• Curlews in Europe blog
• European Breeding Bird Atlas

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Headstarting Curlews in Ireland

Donal Beagan (Breeding Waders EIP)

The Curlew Conservation Programme undertook a small scale pilot headstarting operation in a pre-planned and strategic manner back in 2022, in form of two pilot projects in counties Kerry and Monaghan. This presentation brings us up to speed with where headstarting is at in Ireland.

Donal Beagan is the Nest Protection and Headstarting Manager for Breeding Waders EIP, working on headstarting Curlew since 2022.

Further Info

• Curlew Conservation Programme
• Irish Curlew blog
• Breeding Waders EIP website
• Breeding Waders EIP Facebook (@Breeding-Waders-EIP-Project)
• Breeding Waders EIP Twitter (@BreedingWaders)

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Headstarting Curlews in Flanders (Belgium)

Griet Nijs (Natuurpunt)

Curlew populations in Flanders are under great pressure. Only an estimated 170-230 bp currently remain and productivity is too low to sustain the local population. Since 2020, headstarting has been used to save nests that would otherwise be lost due to agricultural work, predation or weather conditions. This allowed a total of 20 young curlews to be released.

Griet Nijs works as an behavioural biologist for the nature conservation organisation Natuurpunt in Belgium where she studies the habitat requirements and breeding succes of the curlew in Flanders since 2020.

Further Info

• Curlew Conservation in Belgium: A Diary blog
• Reflections on Belgium Curlews blog
• Eurasian curlews (Numenius arquata, Scolopacidae) breeding in Flanders (Belgium) dataset

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The Curlew Headstarting Programme of Tierpark Nordhorn (Germany)

Dr Heike Weber (Tierpark Nordhorn)

Tierpark Nordhorn zoo in Germany have a Curlew Headstarting Programme and this presentation will cover what they do, how their programme works, the problems they have experienced and the results to date.

Dr Heike Weber has been a zoo veterinarian and curator for more than 20 years in a small zoo in North West Germany, next to the border of the Netherlands, called Tierpark Nordhorn. The zoo hosts also a small rescue center for injured wildlife species as well as confiscated or located protected exotic species. One of the zoos conservation programs is the headstarting program of curlews for which they are also responsible.

Further Info

• Tierpark Nordhorn Curlew Project

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Headstarting Curlews in Poland

Przemysław Obłoza (Polish Society for the Protection of Birds)

The headstarting of the Eurasian Curlew started in Poland in 2014 as a response to the rapid decline in population. he program is carried out by cooperating non-governmental and governmental organizations. Over ten years, several hundred birds have been released. The effects of the program are becoming increasingly visible.

Przemek Obłoza is an employee of the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds and research coordinator in the Life project “Curlew in danger – protection of the Eurasian curlew Numenius arquata in Poland”. They are also a doctoral student at the University of Siedlce.

Further Info

• Curlew Conservation Plan
• Curlew In Danger project
• Reflections on Polish Curlews blog
• Curlew Conservation in Poland blog
• Polish Curlews with “UK wintering visa” blog
• Project LIFE Facebook
• Project LIFE X (formerly Twitter)
• Project LIFE Instagram

Headstarting is a crisis conservation technique for endangered species in which eggs are removed from areas in which they are unlikely to survive, reared in captivity and the young birds fledged back to the wild.

In February 2025, Curlew Action brought together conservationists and organisations from across Europe who are involved in headstarting the European Curlew to share knowledge and discuss the feasibility and best practices of curlew headstarting projects. This blog is the first of 8 that will disseminate the presentations and outputs from this 2-day virtual event.

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Headstarting: The Big Picture

Dr Geoff Hilton (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)

Geoff puts curlew headstarting into context as a conservation intervention. What is the problem we are trying to solve with headstarting? Why is it a promising technique and what are its limits and constraints? What does all this tell us about when and where headstarting might be a sensible option for curlew conservation?

Dr Geoff Hilton is the Head of Conservation Evidence at WWT, the charity for wetlands. He has worked for 25 years on the science of threatened species recovery, and for the last six years has been involved in work to understand and Eurasian curlew declines and devise solutions.

Further Info

• Cook et al (2021) Temperature and density influence survival in a rapidly declining migratory shorebird
• Project Godwit
• Donaldson et al (2024) Headstarting boosts population of a threatened wader, the black-tailed godwit
• Donaldson, L. Nicol-Harper, A., Lee, R., Jarrett, N. & Hilton, G.M. (in review). When and why to give shorebirds a headstart. Conservation Biology. In review
• Curlew Recovery Partnership England

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Headstarting as a Conservation Measure: Opportunity or Aberration?

Dr Helmut Kruckenberg (Institute for Wetlands and Waterbird Research, Germany)

Headstarting is a relatively new method used in species conservation. It is successfully used in reptiles and amphibia, but is this also useable for birds? This talk presents more questions than answers but gives an overview of the problems, as well as pros and cons.

Dr Helmut Kruckenberg is a biologist and Head of Institute for Wetlands and Waterbird Research.

Further Info

• Institute for Wetlands and Waterbird Research
• Institute for Wetlands and Waterbird Research Facebook
• Tracking Germany’s curlews

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Headstarting in the UK: Licensing and Restrictions

Richard Saunders and Graham Irving (Natural England)

All wild birds, their eggs and nests are protected in the UK. Therefore, all headstarting projects require a licence. This presentation shows how licence applications for headstarting projects are assessed and describes the different types of headstarting project. It then focusses on one bird licensing issue – air safety. A change in approach has been used to the Curlew’s advantage. Through headstarting and translocation, hundreds of Curlew eggs and chicks have been rescued from sites where the birds were at risk. Is this situation unique to England, or might such opportunities exist elsewhere in Europe?

Richard Saunders is a Senior Ornithologist at Natural England, leading on Curlew and Avian Reintroductions for Natural England’s Birds Team.

Graham Irving is a Senior Advisor in the licensing team within Natural England. He liaises with the airbases and collects the curlew eggs in a portable incubator and delivers them to Pensthorpe.

Further Info

• Reintroductions and conservation translocations in England: code, guidance and forms
• Natural England announces new project to protect curlew eggs

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Headstarting: WWT Perspective, Feasibility and Justification

Nigel Jarrett (Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust)

Nigel Jarrett will explain why he thinks headstarting is a justifiable and feasible conservation intervention that could help halt/reverse the decline of Curlew in southern England if the causes underlying the species’ declines are absent or controlled. He will touch on the costs of headstarting – it’s an expensive undertaking, as are many species conservation interventions.

Nigel Jarrett is WWT’s Conservation Breeding Manager. He has been involved in Curlew headstarting projects on Dartmoor and in the Severn and Avon Vales, as wel as headstarting projects for the Black-tailed Godwit and Spoon-billed Sandpiper. He has also worked on the reintroduction of the Madagascar Pochard. Eurasian Cranes translocations of the Layan Teal from Laysan Island to Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean and McQueen’s bustard in the UAE.

Further Info

• Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust
• Best Practice Guidelines for Conservation Translocations in Scotland
• AEWA Conservation Guidelines No. 13: Guidelines for the Translocation of Waterbirds for Conservation Purposes: Complementing the IUCN Guidelines
• Reintroductions and other conservation translocations: code and guidance for England
• IUCN Guidelines for Reintroductions and Other Conservation Translocations
• Curlew LIFE: Saving the call of the Curlew (December 2024)
• The Curlew Forum: Saving England’s lowland Eurasian Curlews (British Birds 2020 Vol.113: Pages 279–292)
• The Great Crane Project, (Damon Bridge, RSPB)
• Reintroducing common cranes (WWT)
• Donaldson et al (2024) Headstarting boosts population of a threatened wader, the black-tailed godwit
• WWT Eurasian Curlew Recovery