The birds, which have a wingspan of more than two metres and a loud, bugling call, have been spotted in Sussex, Oxfordshire and parts of East Anglia during recent months.

One pair, at the Lakenheath Fen Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) nature reserve in Suffolk, has even laid eggs and is attracting other cranes to the area for the first time in 400 years. ‘The decision to nest on the reserve was totally unexpected, very exciting and completely wonderful,’ said RSPB chief executive Graham Wynne.

August 2007