Bid to save endangered sea bird

The Balearic shearwater is a dove-sized relative of the albatross

A bird species which visits UK shores in summer and autumn but roosts at sea is being monitored by bird watchers in a bid to save it from extinction.

The Balearic shearwater - a dove-sized relative of the albatross - is visiting England in increasing numbers, even though the species is in decline.

RSPB watchers will use telescopes to count the hard-to-spot birds.

The study is taking place on headlands in Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Sussex.

Breeding colonies can be found on only five islands in the Mediterranean, but the birds there are threatened by building developments, feral cats and rats.

When the breeding season is over, the birds head northwards, visiting the seas around Devon, Dorset and Cornwall in late summer and early autumn.

To the untrained eye, they can be hard to identify Mark Darlaston

Conservationists believe the birds' journey to the English South Coast will become increasingly more important for the species.

Carles Carboneras, a sea bird expert with the RSPB's partner organisation in Spain, said it was previously thought that the species loved the warmth of the Mediterranean.

But he said: "It prefers to leave the Mediterranean in mid summer and head north through the Bay of Biscay towards relatively cool British waters.

"It is a specialist of cold-water and the bird can no longer live where it used to."

It is believed that there are now fewer than 2,000 breeding pairs remaining in the world, compared with 3,300 in 1991.

RSPB conservation officer Helen Booker said: "These birds don't come to land after breeding, and their fleeting contact with people makes them also one of the least-known birds in Britain."

Bird watcher Mark Darlaston said experience was needed to spot the difference between Balearic shearwaters and Manx shearwaters, which were also in the water at this time of the year.

He said: "To the untrained eye, they can be hard to identify."