A bird that once came close to disappearing from England is turning up in record numbers on RSPB reserves.
A survey found 264 pairs of Dartford warblers on reserves run by the bird conservation charity in 2025, the highest total ever recorded there and a 44 percent increase in five years.
Dartford warblers are found on lowland heathland in southern England. They are small, grey-brown birds with a red eye ring, russet breast and long tail, and may be seen perched on top of gorse singing a scratchy song.
The species is particularly sensitive to harsh winter weather. As a ground-nesting bird, it depends on dense gorse in mature heathland for food and shelter.
In the 1960s, the population crashed, leaving only a few pairs in Dorset and putting the species on the brink of extinction in England.
The RSPB said the increase is due in part to work by reserve staff and volunteers to restore heathland habitat. A heathland birds survey estimates the UK population at about 4,100.
Lowland heathland is one of the UK’s most threatened habitats, with 80 percent lost since the 1800s because of forestry and changes in land use, the RSPB said.
To counter that loss, RSPB staff and volunteers have been removing conifer plantations, reverting arable land to heath and linking fragmented heathland. The work has provided Dartford warblers with the dense gorse they need.
Spiky gorse gives the birds a safe place to nest and hunt. Dartford warblers specialise in picking spiders and caterpillars from their hiding places.
The birds were recorded at 14 RSPB nature reserves, including 97 pairs at RSPB Arne in Dorset.
Peter Robertson, the reserve’s senior site manager, said: “Restoration of heathland across RSPB Arne has been on a landscape scale. Staff and volunteers have helped connect and enlarge fragmented patches of heathland to give wildlife, such as the Dartford warbler, the space to thrive. The sound of Dartford warblers singing is everywhere now.”
Other counts included 25 pairs at RSPB Aylesbeare in Devon, 41 at RSPB Minsmere and 17 at RSPB North Warren, both in Suffolk, 23 at RSPB Farnham Heath in Surrey and 15 at RSPB Broadwater Warren in Kent.
Farnham Heath and Broadwater Warren were conifer plantations 20 years ago.
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