UK’s loudest bird finds its voice again after bumper breeding season

Once-extinct, bitterns make booming ‘foghorn’ noise to attract mates with 228 calling males counted in last breeding period

The UK’s loudest bird has had a bumper breeding year after previously being driven to extinction in the country.

Bitterns became locally extinct in the 1870s due to persecution and draining of their wetland habitat for agriculture. Now the RSPB has revealed that thanks to conservation work, the bird, which has a distinctive “booming” call, has had one of its most successful breeding seasons.