UK's rarest bird rears six chicks secretly

The Montagu's harrier, Britain's rarest bird of prey, nested at secret locations for a second year and reared six chicks from two nests. The 10-year-old male, known as AU and ringed in Wiltshire in 2016, teamed up with two new females and helped feed three chicks in each nest. The species, on the Red List since 2021, has faced a long decline with no breeding between 2020 and 2024, and nests are protected by fences on working farms to guard against predators. For the first time in the UK, two juvenile females were fitted with satellite trackers to monitor their 7,000-mile migratory journey to West Africa. The secrecy of nest locations is a deliberate measure to prevent crowds from twitchers as the population remains fragile. Conservationists credit AU’s breeding efforts with propping up the species in the UK, amid ongoing threats from habitat loss and predation, after a high of nine nests in 2011.