Rare breeding plan for seabirds

Conservationists hope to encourage one of the UK's rarest seabirds to breed on the Isles of Scilly again.

There are about 50 pairs of roseate terns in the UK. The species is on the RSPB's Red List species which has the highest conservation priority.

Colonies are almost always on small offshore islands and their nest sites will be sheltered, often by overhung rocks or vegetation.

The birds have not bred on the Isles of Scilly for more than a decade.

Action plan

They have been nesting successfully on Coquet Island in Northumberland.

But conservationists in the Scillies hope the roseate tern may be encouraged back to breed amongst the islands' colonies of common terns.

It follows the success of a project by the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust to stop rats from stealing eggs from terns' nest sites.

The government agreed a biodiversity action plan in 1998, which included increasing the roseate tern's population to 200 pairs by 2008.