It was lost as a breeding bird 400 years ago after their nesting sites were drained.

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The wren is undoubtedly the most common breeding bird in Bristol.

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Environmentalists said the area is a breeding ground for bird species including rare skylarks and lapwings.

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"To have a bird still breeding at this age is remarkable, " she said.

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The six-year-old pigeon was retired in 2009 after breaking a wing, but Kerry Mellonby from Bridlington kept the bird for breeding before deciding to sell.

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Away from politics, he was a bird fancier dedicated to breeding a pure black budgerigar.

ECONOMIST: Jaap Marais

Despite many subsequent expeditions, the bird's main breeding grounds, thought to lie in the wildernesses of western Siberia or northern Kazakhstan, have eluded detection.

BBC: Slender-billed curlew, WWW

Any feathers the bird had grown at a particular breeding ground would reflect the area's "signature" in their isotope ratios (the relationship between different types of the same atom), narrowing the search area for researchers.

BBC: Slender-billed curlew, WWW

The upshot of all this will be to permit the design of more scientifically based breeding programmes that can concentrate the maximum number of desirable characteristics into a single bird.

ECONOMIST: A genetic game of chicken

In 2008, birdwatchers' hopes of snowy owls breeding in the UK for first time in more than 30 years were raised when the bird was joined by a female.

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They found that, over the course of the breeding season, deserting the nest once eggs had been laid boosted the number of descendants produced by the bird that fled.

ECONOMIST: Evolutionary biology