The haunting cry of the curlew may disappear from the Irish countryside’

The haunting cry of the curlew is known as the sound of the Irish countryside but the bird is now in danger of becoming extinct in Ireland.

The two-note call of the beautiful wading bird has been the soundtrack to a string of Irish films but now experts believe they could be completely wiped due to their natural wetland nesting grounds disappearing.

Birdwatch Ireland has released unpublished figures which show how the bird’s numbers have suffered a catastrophic crash of over 12,000 pairs in 1990 to just a few hundred pairs today.