UK's rarest bird of prey rears new chicks in secret location

UK's rarest bird of prey has successfully reared new chicks at a concealed location, the RSPB reported. These slender, long-winged raptors undertake an epic yearly migration to Africa in winter and return to Europe to nest in summer, often choosing cultivated fields. Little is known about the behaviour of juvenile harriers once they leave the nest. This year, for the first time, the RSPB fitted two of the chicks with external tags in the hope of giving the birds better protection. "It volition let america for the archetypal clip ever to enactment retired wherever they're going, what migration route, however agelong they'll walk there, and volition they travel backmost to the UK successful the archetypal twelvemonth oregon the 2nd year," said Mark Thomas, caput of investigations astatine the RSPB. "All of that accusation is the spot that's missing from the jigsaw." It is also hoped the tagging will better support the uncommon birds from having their nests, on the ground, hidden among crops, inadvertently destroyed. "This is simply a taxon close connected the brink, and clime alteration is not helping that. The harvest here, for example, this year, was similar a period earlier than successful erstwhile years. So it astir puts immoderate Montagu's harrier nest astatine the peril of inadvertently being destroyed by workplace machinery," said Thomas.