Our Wild Things columnist Eric Brown takes a look at recent bird colonists, reveals news of expectant new British breeder and ambitious plans for the reintroduction of an iconic species to Kent.

Often I write about declines in bird populations to near-catastrophic levels, so this time I’m turning the spotlight on new arrivals, new breeders and species making comebacks.

Any day now should bring confirmation that Britain’s breeding bird list has expanded. By the time you read this the glossy ibis, an exotic distant relative of storks and herons, may have hatched chicks in a wetland nest.

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News won’t be confirmed until the young are well established to foil egg-collectors hoping for a souvenirs of a first glossy ibis British breeding triumph.

The Mediterranean-based ibis has wintered in Britain in increasing numbers with double-figure counts recorded at the RSPB Dungeness reserve in Kent. This may well emerge as the venue for a first British breeding success along with Ham Wall, Somerset. Both reserves host good numbers of those other continental incomers little and great white egrets.

The turkey-sized ibis appears black from a distance but actually has a greeny-purple sheen to its feathers, revealed in sunlight. Its prominent curved bill probes shallow water for water snails, frogs and insect larvae. I saw one of these exotic birds in March at Cliffe Pools near Gravesend where it remained for several weeks.

Also sporting a downcurved bill is the chough which will join other reintroduced birds like red kites in Kent soon. A sort of oversized blackbird, choughs are restricted mainly to Wales and Cornwall where they inhabit clifftop pastures. Fifty choughs will be released in Kent, where they feature on the Canterbury coat of arms but died out in the county many years ago. Legend surrounds the bird as it is said it got its red legs and feet from paddling in the blood of murdered Archbishop Thomas Beckett.

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Birds already making strong comebacks to the British breeding list include common cranes, white-tailed or sea eagles and white storks, thriving at a Sussex-based rewilding centre.

Science has advanced so enormously there is even talk of far more sensational revivals to come. Advances in DNA techniques theoretically make it possible for the flightless dodo, wiped out in the 17th century by hunting, to be recreated. If that happened it would put an end to the phrase "dead as a dodo."