Rare bird sighting causes flutter

Many bird-watchers believe it was a rare slender-billed curlew

Bird-watchers believe they have sighted one of the world's rarest birds at a nature reserve in Suffolk.

People have been travelling to Minsmere from across the UK and Europe in the hope of getting a glimpse of what is thought to be a slender-billed curlew.

The elusive bird - only officially seen 174 times in the last century - was first spotted by an RSPB researcher.

The bird was last seen in the UK in Northumbria six years ago. The latest sighting could take months to confirm.

Experts need to be certain the bird is a slender-billed curlew and not a common curlew, which are regularly found in the UK.

Ian Barthorpe, Minsmere spokesman, said the two birds looked so similar it was difficult to tell them apart.

If we could say categorically that this is a slender-billed curlew then we would have thousands of people coming here to look, even from abroad Ian Barthorpe, nature reserve spokesman

"They are so rare that so few people have seen them and so it is difficult to identify them," he said.

"Also they are very similar to the common curlew both of which have a lot of variations and can differ in plumage and size."

Estimates of the slender-billed curlew's worldwide numbers range between 50 and about 270.

In the 19th century the birds used to breed in Kazakhstan and Siberia and migrate to north Africa for winter, but their current breeding grounds have never been found.

Mr Barthorpe added: "If we could say categorically that this is a slender-billed curlew then we would have thousands of people coming here to look, even from abroad.

"But we won't be able to say that for a few months until eyewitness reports and photographs prove what it is."