Britain’s Loudest Bird Booms Back: Record Number of Bitterns Recorded

The bittern is a rare wetland bird. But what the bittern lacks in numbers it more than makes up for in voice: the male’s deep, resonant “boom” during the breeding season is the loudest call of any bird in the UK, carrying for miles across the wetlands. Conservationists had cause to celebrate as that booming chorus reached a new high.

A record number of booming male bitterns was recorded across the UK in the latest survey, the highest since 1990. More than half the population was found on RSPB reserves, with key sites including Minsmere, Lakenheath Fen, and Ham Wall, while booming was also heard at a number of new locations — a sign the birds are spreading into freshly restored habitat.

The recovery is all the more remarkable given how close the bittern came to vanishing. The species was driven extinct in Britain by the late nineteenth century through habitat loss and persecution, returned to Norfolk around 1900, then crashed again to just eleven booming males by 1997. Habitat protection and monitoring have helped the species bounce back.

As RSPB senior conservation scientist Simon Wotton put it, wetlands are incredible places for nature, and the bittern’s breeding success is a shining example of effective conservation. The booming bittern story shows how protecting habitat can bring a species back from the very edge. With careful management, these atmospheric wetlands now echo each spring with the deep call of a bird that very nearly fell silent forever.