🔭🐦 You’ve heard the sound, now meet the bird behind it. The corncrake’s iconic “crex crex” call echoes through spring meadows — but catching sight of this secretive ground-nester is a rare treat.

A corncrake has been heard calling on Rathlin Island for the first time in more than 10 years. The distinctive rasping crex-crex call was first heard close to Church Bay last Thursday and the male ...

The news is welcome after the bird faced extinction from Northern Ireland in the 1990s. The population of the corncrake had been driven to the brink due to changing farming practices and the loss of ...