If you look up to the skies of Sussex, you might be lucky enough to catch sight of something that hasn’t been seen for more than 600 years: a stork, fledged from a nearby nest. With their enormous wingspan, it’s hard to mistake them for anything else and the last time they were resident in England was just a year after the Battle of Agincourt.

Amid fears of biodiversity loss and climate change, their return is a rare piece of good news. Thanks, though, to the hard work of the RSPB, dedicated conservation groups, collaborative farmers and thousands of volunteers, there are growing numbers of certain species of birds in Britain, some brought back from near extinction, others have been reintroduced after an absence of hundreds of years.

“Generally, things aren’t doing well, there’s a perpetual decline for many birds,” admits Jon Carter of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), “but there are key species that are turning a corner or bucking this trend.”

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