'One of Britain's rarest birds walked past my kitchen window'

A woman spotted one of the UK's rarest and most elusive birds in her garden in what has been described as an "almost exceptional" sighting.

Karine Nohr saw the juvenile bittern as it strolled past the kitchen window of her home in Nether Edge, Sheffield, before wandering into her back garden and attempting to fish in her pond.

Bitterns, which live in wetlands and make a distinctive booming noise, were considered an extinct breeding bird in Yorkshire in 1997 but numbers have since made a recovery due to habitat management.

Birdwatcher and head of RSPB supporter communications, Luke Phillips, described the urban sighting as "really, really odd", but the bittern later died having been taken into the care of a wildlife rescue.

The lost bittern spent several days in Sheffield this week, and was also seen in the River Sheaf and in a cemetery in Sharrow.

Nohr, 69, caught sight of the bittern as it walked past her kitchen window and down a passageway.

"My husband said to me, 'what on earth is that big bird?'."

She snapped a photo of the bird before it wandered over to her garden pond and flew away.

"It was larger than anything I'd seen in my garden, and I knew it was something unusual, but I had no idea how rare it was," Nohr said.

"I sent it to my WhatsApp group and asked: 'does anybody know what this guy is?'.

"Instantly the recognition started coming in; people said it was a bittern and they told me how lucky I am."

A member of the group chat then alerted the RSPB to the sighting.

Phillips, who has worked on RSPB projects to improve bitterns' habitats, said it was unusual to see bitterns away from wetlands or reedbeds, but called the Sheffield sighting "almost exceptional". Most live on nature reserves.

He added: "When you see a bittern, you can tell it lives in a reedbed. It is all brown and streaky and it has just got the most perfect camouflage.

"So, to get one in a garden where there clearly is not a big wetland or reedbeds is really, really odd."

Phillips said bitterns migrate at night and, though they seek out their usual habitats, there was "always a risk of something going wrong".

"If there is a bad rainstorm or something like that, birds often have to land somewhere as a bit of an emergency, and that could be the case with this bird."

The bittern was later taken to Mansfield Wildlife Rescue, who have since confirmed that it had passed away after being assessed as severely undernourished.

Phillips said a bittern walking around a garden was "clearly out of place" and advised anyone who sees one in similar circumstances, especially if it cannot fly away, to contact a local wildlife rescue centre or the RSPCA.

Bitterns became extinct in the UK in the late 19th Century due to persecution and draining of their wetland habitats for agriculture.

They returned in the early 20th Century, with numbers peaking in the 1950s, but fell once again in 1997 when just 11 males were heard.

In 2024, 283 booming males were recorded in the country, and in Yorkshire they have flourished at reserves including RSPB Old Moor, near Barnsley, RSPB St Aidan's, near Castleford, and the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust-managed Potteric Carr near Doncaster. The latter recorded its best-ever breeding season this summer, with six juveniles fledging.

Emma Tuckey, senior reserve manager at RSPB Old Moor, said: "Whilst this bittern was clearly lost, it's the time of year that bitterns are on the move. It was seen in a few local gardens, rooftops and by the River Sheaf.

"Bitterns are usually very shy birds, skulking around reedbeds, rarely being seen. It's only in springtime that they become a bit easier to spot when the females fly from the nest site to different ponds to get fish to feed their young. The rest of the year it's pot luck and such a joy to see them."

Tuckey added that the careful restoration of reedbeds since the early 2000s was a key reason why bittern numbers had recovered.

"I think this inner-city sighting is testament to the years of conservation efforts in Yorkshire to bring the bittern back from near-extinction.

"RSPB Old Moor has helped around 80 bittern chicks since the reedbeds were created. It could well be one of Old Moor's bitterns looking for a new home, having a pit stop en route to another patch of reedbed."

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