'Bumper year' for Cornish choughs

This year marks 20 years since the first Cornish born choughs were seen once again in the county.

Conservationists are celebrating the milestone with the news that Cornwall's bird continues to be on the up after another great nesting season this spring.

The Cornish Chough Conservation Network said this year 25 pairs, raising more than 70 youngsters, have been found.

These new additions bring the total population to about 200 birds.

In 2002, a pair of choughs on the Lizard, which naturally returned to Cornwall the previous year after a lengthy absence from the coast, successfully fledged three young.

Experts said the chough can now be seen all over Cornwall, with small populations on the mid and north Cornwall coast.

The Cornish Chough Conservation Network said not all the young birds would survive to adulthood and raise families themselves, but added the higher the number of chicks that survive each year, the more robust the birds would become against extinction in the future.

Hilary Mitchell, of Cornwall Bird Watching & Preservation Society, said it was becoming "much harder" to track down chough pairs, and the records sent in had proved "incredibly valuable" to locating new pairs.

Ms Mitchell said: "With our chough population increasing and spreading out along much of the Cornish coast, it's wonderful that so many more people, both local and visitors, have had the opportunity to connect with these fantastic birds."

Kate Evans, from National Trust said: "We often hear and read about nature decline in the news, so it's great to be celebrating a nature conservation success story like this one, and so close to home."

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