The breeding rate of lapwings has soared this summer thanks in large part to conservation efforts in Co Mayo, Birdwatch Ireland has said.
The bird is commonly called a “peewit” – an onomatopoeic nickname born from its two-syllable shrill.
Described as a “bumper breeding season” by the independent conservation charity, Birdwatch recorded at least 143 chicks raised by 67 pairs of the bird at the Annagh Marsh Nature Reserve this summer, giving the “nationally endangered species a much-needed boost”.
Birdwatch said only eight lapwings were breeding at the reserve on the Mullet Peninsula in 1985.
The breeding population dwindled to just two pairs by 1996, placing “the species at grave risk of extinction”.
The charity launched “habitat restoration” efforts in 2001 and enjoyed “some initial successes” in the following years. By 2004, “numbers began to decline once more”, it said.
Having “identified foxes as the main predators” of the birds’ eggs, the charity implemented “a predator exclusion fence” in the autumn of 2011, and later extended the protected area with support from two local farmers.
In 2024, the fence was upgraded to exclude “two other significant predators”: otters and American minks. Breeding numbers have “continued to rise” since then, BirdWatch said.
Dave Suddaby, the charity’s reserves manager, described the fence as “substantial” and “high-tech”.
“People do notice it – I know when I first put it up there, they were like: ‘Crikey,’” he said.
He likened the barrier to “a typical sheep fence, with the square wire mesh fencing”, featuring “a smaller gauge of mesh, so foxes can’t get through it”.
“But they could potentially jump or climb over it … so, on top of that, there’s now also four strands of high-voltage electric fencing, [with] an electric pulse going through the top of the fence,” he said.
“Anything trying to climb over, or attempting to jump over, will get a severe zap, and that discourages them from trying again,” he said.
The largely black and white bird, with green, purple, blue and gold feathers stroked across its body and a wispy crest atop its head, is a native species to the island.
It is seen by many ornithologists, including Suddaby, as a symbol of Ireland.
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In 1990, the lapwing was declared the national bird by a committee of the Irish Wildbird Conservancy, a precursor to BirdWatch Ireland, although it has never been officially deemed so by the Government.
The Annagh Marsh Nature Reserve is home to 10 per cent of the national breeding population – about 600 breeding pairs.
This is about a 90 per cent decrease from pre-1990s levels, “showing just how severely threatened the species is”, according to BirdWatch.