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The licence permits chicks to be taken where there are three or more present in the nest.

Three falconers have each been granted a licence to take up to six peregrine falcon chicks from the nests of wild birds.

Natural England’s decision worries conservationists. The RSPB says that, though peregrine numbers have increased significantly in recent years, there is still concern that some are being illegally taken from the wild to serve demand for falconry birds in the Middle East.

“We fear that granting this licence could open the door to more such applications, and it is therefore vital that this is given full public scrutiny,” it adds.

Gary Wall, who is one of the falconers to have been granted the licence, has written a number of blogs explaining why they want the chicks.

In one post, he says there is little understanding of where Britain’s captive peregrines have come from, and that by taking these birds, they can start a studbook of birds of known origin. “It’s an important step in reinstating our cultural right of access to wild populations here in the UK,” he writes on the British Archives of Falconry Facebook page.

Scottish Natural Heritage previously turned down a similar application from Wall.

BBC Wildlife contacted Wall for an interview but did not receive a response.

Dr Rob Thomas, a senior lecturer in biosciences at Cardiff University and who has been following the case closely, says one

of the rationales has been the greater cultural value to falconers of pure British falcons.

But, he argues, the demand for British peregrines outside the UK needs to be considered. “It implies these birds will have a high commercial value, but the commercial side of this has not been explained,” Thomas says.

The licence comes with various conditions attached, such as chicks can only be taken from nests where three or more chicks are present. “We have specified that the smallest chick must be taken, [one] which would ordinarily not survive in the wild,” Natural England’s director for wildlife licensing Dave Slater wrote on the agency’s website.

In addition, no peregrine chicks can be taken from upland areas, where persecution of birds of prey is still a risk, and it is unlikely the birds would ever be permitted to be sold. James Fair

FIND OUT MORE

Dave Slater blog: bit.ly/2VYczjw

Peregrine falcon numbers have increased greatly in the past half century – from 47 breeding pairs in England in the 1970s to more than 800 today.