TWENTY-FIVE years of dedication to save the cirl bunting as a breeding species in Britain has been rewarded with the threatened bird’s population topping 1,000 pairs in Teignbridge and the rest of south Devon.

Farmers locally have been praised for helping the RSPB make a giant step towards achieving conservation security for the once-endangered farmland bird.

A survey this summer recorded 1,078 pairs, passing the 1,000 target set by the RSPB when it launched the Cirl Bunting Project a quarter-century ago.

In the early 1990s there were barely more than 100 pairs left in Britain, almost all confined to a narrow coastal strip of south Devon.

Teignbridge now boasts exactly a third of the entire cirl bunting population in the UK.

Nick Bruce-White, the RSPB’s South West regional director, said: ‘The cirl bunting’s recovery is a wonderful example of farmers and conservationists working together.

‘This summer’s survey results show clearly the impact we can have when collective focus is placed on researching and implementing solutions to the loss of nature in our countryside.’

Teignbridge Council was among the bodies which supported this year’s cirl bunting survey.

The RSPB’s Labrador Bay reserve, near Shaldon, is being specially managed for the bird to help the organisation weather future shocks such as that which prompted the population crash of the 1960s and 1970s.

Twenty-three pairs were recorded this year, with many more wintering there. It now holds two per cent of the national population, which qualifies it as a nationally important site for the species.