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Rare birds breed 'furthest north in 70 years'

Tom MacDougall,North East and Cumbriaand
Mark Denten,North East and Cumbria correspondent
News imageGetty Images A bittern bird, which is brown speckled with yellow feet, walking on the ground. It is making unusually high and deliberate footsteps with its head bowed slightly, resiminscent of a cartoon character sneaking forward. It has a fairly long beak and black, currant-like eyes.Getty Images
Bitterns have bred at Gosforth Nature Reserve for the first time since the 1950s, the local Natural History Society said

One of Britain's rarest and loudest birds are thought to have bred at a nature reserve, believed to be the furthest north in 70 years.

Bitterns have bred at Gosforth Nature Reserve, the Natural History Society of Northumbria (NHSN) said, with historical records showing the last signs of breeding were at the site in 1956.

The males of the species, are known for their distinctively "booming" mating call which can travel 3 miles (5km). Bitterns were driven to extinction in Britain in the 1870s and nearly suffered a second extinction in the 1990s.

NHSH director Clare Freeman said: "This is absolutely fantastic news and one of the most exciting developments we've had."

The species is amber-listed as a bird of conservation concern, with 283 males recorded in the most recent RSPB survey from 2025 - which indicated they were on the rise.

Only the males can be recorded because the birds are so secretive and stay tucked away in reed beds, so they have to be counted by their mating call.

News imageTom Quenet Footage by a birdwatcher showing one of the birds raising its head in the air, demonstrating its capability to stretch its neck high above its body. The brown and white feathers blend in with the similarly coloured brush of the reed bed behind it.Tom Quenet
Spot the bittern: photographers spent "hundreds of hours" gathering evidence the birds had bred

The birds are so elusive that confirmation of the breeding was reached by volunteers spending "hundreds of hours" trying to gather footage of the birds, the NHSN said.

No chicks were spotted, but confirmation could be made by analysing the birds present at the reserve and their behaviour.

NSHN Ourseburn naturalist James Common said: "You're never going to see a wonderful family group of bittens gathered together - it's a bit like a game of Cluedo."

Volunteer and birdwatcher Tom Quenet said: "Putting it together bit by bit, mounting the evidence, makes all the difference."

He said, early on when he started watching at the site 10 months ago, "nothing would happen", but he had now seen the bird every day in September.

Quenet, who is also a Methodist minster said, if he ever captured a photo of a chick itself, "I'd think I'd gone to Heaven".

"I'd say bring it on, Lord."

News imageBBC/Mark Denten Tom Quenet, a senior man with a short, white-grey beard, smiling. He is wearing a navy blue jumper with a blue chequered shirt underneath, a khaki flat cap, and is holding a camera with a long lens, wrapped in a camoflauge cloth. Behind him is a patch of dense reeds and a thick canopy of overhanging branches from the trees. BBC/Mark Denten
Tom Quenet said he has now spotted the birds every day this month

Freeman said: "Bitterns are notoriously secretive birds, so confirming that they have not only stayed to breed but successfully raised young is a huge moment for the reserve."

She added the history of the birds breeding in Gosforth made it "even more special".

"It is wonderful to think that a bird which was once breeding here when the reserve was still in its infancy is now doing so again," she said.

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