Critically endangered birds given 'emergency lifeline' to help population survive

• Video report by ITV News Anglia's Raveena Ghattaura

A pioneering project to save one of our rarest species of birds has proved a success.

A team at the Welney Wetland Centre in the Fens used a technique called "headstarting" as part of Project Godwit, to boost the population of black-tailed godwits in the UK.

This involves collecting eggs from the wild under licence from Natural England and incubating them in a special unit.

Once hatched, the chicks are hand-reared and then released back into the wild when they are old and strong enough to fly in a bid to prevent the bird becoming extinct.

Conservationists at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust and the RSPB said there were now 40% more black-tailed godwits in the UK than six years ago.

"We estimate the population is around 50 pairs, but were it not for headstarting the population would be about 40% lower", said Hannah Phillips of the RSPB.

"So the fact that we have now got headstarted birds coming back and breeding in the population themselves has given the godwits a real boost."

The latest - and last - release meant more than 200 head-started birds have now been released onto the Ouse and Nene Washes in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

It's the first time headstarting has been used boost the population of an endangered bird in the UK.

As well as projects like this, experts say more wetland habitat is needed to help the species thrive.

"Headstarting has given the species a lifeline", WWT's Eric Heath said.

"We have given them a chance, we have managed to halt their decline and increased the population fairly substantially. But if we don't tackle the wider issues that we face in this landscape - the lack of wetland beyond the nature reserve - there is almost nothing here.

"We really really need to look at wetland creation and wetland restoration."

"Headstarting" is now being trialled on curlews, whose numbers have halved in the past 25 years.