01
Breed
Rescue storks unable to return to the wild raise chicks in protected aviaries across Cornwall.
A Cornish Reintroduction
Bringing White Storks back to Cornwall.
A registered charity working with landowners, sanctuaries and partners to establish a wild breeding population across Cornwall and the South West.
In partnership with
Our mission
We are establishing a wild breeding population of White Storks in Cornwall, and improving the landscape that holds them.
0
Chicks hatched
0
Breeding sites
1 live, 2 in development.
Since
2021
Started at Hamatethy, near Bodmin.
Why storks?
A flagship species, not a keystone one.
Storks don’t engineer landscapes the way beavers do. Their function is different, and quietly profound: they reconnect us to the wild.
They are spectacular, tall, white-and-black, nesting high and visible for miles. Their return opens the conversation about healthy soils, abundant insect life, restored wetlands and a Cornish countryside thick with life.
A landscape good for storks is a landscape recovering for nature broadly. We follow the model proven at the Knepp Estate in Sussex, adapted for Cornwall.
Read the scienceThe work
Breed. Release. Return.
02
Release
Chicks are released in late summer in groups of ten or twenty, exploring widely across the South West.
03
Return
Storks have a strong instinct to return to where they first flew. The birds released here will come home.
Citizen science
Sightings across Cornwall.
Every dot is a confirmed sighting reported by the public. Tap the map to explore the full record, or report one of your own.
Hand-reared, then home
The chicks born here will return here.
White Storks have a strong natal philopatry. They come back to where they first flew. Only chicks hatched and reared in Cornwall will imprint on this landscape and return from migration. Adult birds released here would simply leave.
Overflow chicks are hand-reared by the Screech Owl Sanctuary and returned to be released alongside their wild-reared siblings.
Field notes
Latest from the project.
Loading latest posts...
Be part of bringing them back.
Every donation funds the import, quarantine, feed and care of the birds at the heart of this work. We are a small charity. Your support changes what is possible.