Farmers need to be funded to keep gorse and scrub, and more efforts need to be made to ensure wild bird cover suits the bird species in the area, BirdWatch Ireland has said.

Speaking on Teagasc’s Environment Edge podcast in a week that saw a report from BirdWatch Ireland and RSPB NI showing one quarter of Ireland’s bird population was at risk, Niall Hatch of BirdWatch Ireland said farmers deserved more funding to support birds.

“We in Birdwatch Ireland are very much of the view that farmers who want to support biodiversity deserve a lot more support for that.

“It’s very important that the State and the European Union would properly fund the farmers for that,” Hatch said.

“If it wasn’t for farmers, we wouldn’t have any farmland birds at all.”

Keeping gorse

He continued by outlining his view that farmers should be funded for keeping gorse and scrub that provided habitats.

But he also voiced concerns that while the sowing of wild bird cover on farms was welcome, it should be ensured that the type being sown actually suited the wild bird population of the area and that gorse should not be removed to make room for cover.

We’ve seen situations where wild gorse is being cleared and then wild bird cover is being placed there

“We’ve seen situations where wild gorse is being cleared and then wild bird cover is being placed there,” Hatch said.

He emphasised the importance of hedgerows and nesting boxes and said that barn owls in particular responded positively to the installation of nesting boxes.

His comments came within a week of International Curlew Day being celebrated on Wednesday 21 April.

Once a common sight and sound across farms, the curlew is now Ireland’s only bird on the IUCN red list of threatened species.

The drastic decline has seen the population drop by 96% from 5,000 to just 140 breeding pairs and the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) and Department of Agriculture are calling on farmers to help halt the decline of one of Ireland’s most iconic birds.

The Curlew Conservation Programme (CCP) wishes to reach out to the public who can help save our curlew by reporting sightings to nationalcurlewsurvey@gmail.com or by calling 083-830 1843.

“The success of the curlew is dependent on the co-operation of landowners and local communities so that the curlew’s call may once again be a common sound across our countryside,” a spokesperson of the NPWS said.