Bird of the Month: Great Bustard
The last great bustard nested in England in 1832.
In 1895, W H Hudson wrote, ‘The order Alectorides includes two noble forms once common. One is the crane ( Grus communis)… the other, finest of British birds, is the great bustard ( Otis tarda).’ How happy he would be today: both birds have a nascent wild population in England.
This was triumphantly endorsed when The Oldie’s Simon Courtauld invited Carry Akroyd and me to visit the Great Bustard Group’s main reserve on Salisbury Plain in April last year. We hoped to see the male’s legendary courting display. Sitting in the spacious hide, we were warned that two bustard enthusiasts from Manchester had twice made the pilgrimage to no avail. This time the hillside reserve opposite, which offered substantial cover, did contain a cock bird and, having watched its stately, well-camouflaged progress, the amazing transformation occurred.
The slender, earth-fused bird stopped and slowly became a dazzling white ball, which beamed its magnificence for several minutes before disappearing as suddenly as a switched light. Another, younger male bird, emerged and followed suit; and so the show continued at intervals until even the most demanding onlooker was satiated. To achieve this ‘balloon display’, the cock sinks its head, distends its neck and visually turns itself inside out. The wings are reversed and spread forward to form a white enclosure with the fanned tail, the whole crested by stiff white whiskers. The bird ‘disappears’, to be reborn a beacon.
The display begins in the spring, but can continue into June. It usually takes place in the early morning – we went after breakfast – or late afternoon, but can occur on moonlit nights; the ultimate wonder. As we left, one bird took off effortlessly and, its long legs tucked out of sight, beat its way steadily into the distance.
The reserve is successfully fenced against foxes and badgers but is not a zoo. The bird’s reintroduction to its ancient stronghold of Salisbury Plain was the unrealised dream of the wildlife art gallery owner, Aylmer Tryon. His 1970s Great Bustard Trust was succeeded in 1998 by the Great Bustard Group, a charity dependent mostly on volunteers, licensed to research by the government ministry DEFRA. The project was set up on the edge of the Plain’s military training area. Chicks and eggs were imported from Russia and Iberia, with the first annual release recorded in 2004.
There is a global population of 35,000 great bustards. Last year was the GTB’S best. Eight nesting females were identified, producing four chicks. Four eggs taken from two of these nests on the reserve – young hen bustards tend to cope better with one chick – were also successfully hatched and reared by the team. They disguise themselves as bustards, delivering the food via modelled, bustard-headed pincers while dressed like astronauts. For the first time, imported eggs were not required. The UK population of 70 wild birds is now deemed self-sustaining.