Conservationists believe that cranes may be breeding in the Fens of East Anglia for the first time in 400 years.
Experts at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) say they have spotted young birds at the Lakenheath Fen reserve near Brandon, Suffolk, in the past few weeks.
Large-scale draining of the wetlands and extensive hunting had led to the disappearance of these majestic birds from parts of Britain where they were once abundant.
An RSPB spokesman said: "They vanished because wetlands, like The Fens, were drained and their habitats destroyed and because they were so intensively hunted.
"To put it into perspective we now have about 1% of the original Fens - they once stretched from Cambridge to Lincoln."
A project aimed at encouraging their return of these birds to their wetland habitat was initiated in the early 1990s and the Lakenheath Fen reserve was created. Experts believe the programme may be seeing some success.
The spokesman said: "Cranes have nested in the Norfolk Broads in recent years and have made sporadic attempts elsewhere.
"But The Fens are significant because they were traditionally the stronghold of the crane and we have really been hoping that they would return to the area."
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