Stone curlews

Stone-curlews declined dramatically until there were only around 150 pairs remaining in the 1980s. The decline was linked to the loss of habitat, as well as changes in farming techniques that led to the well-hidden nests being accidentally destroyed by machinery.

They're still rare, but the population is recovering thanks to dedicated conservation work.

Current challenges:

As stone-curlews nest on the ground, their eggs are very vulnerable to predations, along with their chicks for the 6 weeks after hatching before they are able to fly. They are also shy and very sensitive to disturbance. They will not tolerate the presence of people or dogs whilst breeding so are restricted to habitats where there is restricted access. This is why Weeting is a perfect place to come view these magical birds, watching them from our hides at a safe distance.

Yes, they are native. They're spring and summer visitors to the UK and spend the winter in southern Europe and northern Africa.

They breed in the summer months between April and August.

The stone-curlews' natural breeding habitat is sparsely vegetated open grassland with plenty of bare ground and short sward. The grass heaths of the Norfolk and Suffolk Brecks provide the perfect conditions for stone-curlew to breed and rear their chicks, and Weeting Heath is one of the best remaining fragments of Brecks Heath that hasn't been lost to agriculture or forestry. 

We carefully manage the habitat to provide the short grassland they like through grazing, along with creating bare, flint covered ground that makes great camouflage for the their eggs. This work, along with the abundant invertebrate populations at Weeting that the stone-curlew feed on, makes sure they are right at home here. 

Stone curlews usually have a clutch of 2 eggs but can sometimes lay a second clutch if conditions are favourable.

Stone curlew are often viewable from the hides at Weeting Heath. Our volunteer ‘guides in the hides’ are on hand with scopes to help you get the best possible views and learn more about these remarkable birds.

Stone-curlew typically have their first breeding attempt in April. They incubate their eggs for 26 days and we aim to get the camera onto the nest after the birds have been sitting for about a week to allow them to settle in. This means once we move the camera onto the nest we are usually able to bring you two and half weeks of the birds incubating their eggs from the latter half of April onwards into early May. 

Once the nest hatches, the chicks leave the nest after 24 hours and wander out of view of the camera. After this, its hard for us to predict when we will and will not have live feeds of a nest again. This is because the chicks stay with the adult for six weeks before they are independent. Once the chicks have fledged, the adults are sometimes able to have a second brood and lay another nest, meaning we are sometimes able to move the camera onto this second nest and bring you live feed all over again! Hooray! 

Unfortunately, sometimes the chicks aren't successful from this first clutch, and if the adults lose their chicks before they've fledged they'll have another go quite quickly. In these situations, we redeploy the camera again on this second (or sometimes third or fourth! ) though the timing of this is dependant on when the previous attempt failed. 

Expect so see our first live feed from April onwards and keep an eye on socials for news of if/when we have a nest feed to bring you of any second brood or re-lays.