RSPB NI live webcams

You’re looking at a livestream of a curlew nest in the Antrim Hills, Northern Ireland.

With their amazing curved bills, long legs and evocative calls, curlews are one of our most charismatic birds, but their numbers are in steep decline. RSPB NI is working with, land-owners, farmers and local communities, to help change their fortunes and secure the future of breeding curlews in the Antrim Hills and Lough Erne as part of the Curlews in Crisis project; a four-year LIFE Nature project funded by the EU LIFE programme, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency and other statutory bodies across the UK. 

Follow the fortunes of our nesting curlews and immerse yourself in their secretive world. Listen out for the males impressive ‘bubbling’ song, the pipping of chicks from inside their egg and watch with us in anticipation as the hatching dates approach.

• Curlews are in trouble. Since the mid-1980s the breeding curlew population in Northern Ireland has fallen by 82%. The last population estimate for breeding curlews in Northern Ireland was 526 pairs in 2013. RSPB NI believes this number could now be as low as 250 pairs.
• During the spring and summer, curlews migrate to their breeding grounds – mostly in upland areas – raising their chicks in areas of rough pasture, heather moorland and wetlands.
• Curlews are Europe’s largest wader. When they spread their wings, they’re almost a metre wide, and their beak is around 15cm long.
• During the breeding season, males deliver a loud and impressive ‘bubbling’ song to attract mates and defend their territories.
• The female lays three or four olive-brown eggs and both parents take it in turns to sit on the nest. The eggs are incubated for 27-29 days (about four weeks).
• When the chicks hatch, they are covered in downy fluff and they quickly learn to feed themselves.