People on the coasts of Sligo, Mayo and Donegal are being asked to listen out for the call of the corncrake bird as they returned to Ireland this week.
John Carey of the Corncrake Life Project told RTÉ's Countrywide that field workers are confirming reports of corncrakes in full voice, although sightings of the bird close-up are "highly unlikely".
Mr Carey said that males make the call to declare the territory to attract females and to tell other males this is their patch.
The population here is increasing slightly and the range of the call the birds make is beginning to expand from the islands of Connemara, Mayo and north and west Donegal and now in Sligo.
He said that his organisation is appealing to people to contact them to try put measures in place to protect them as last year only 197 males were recorded, but the birds are extremely rare and threatened.
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"The population has by 30% increased nationally since 2018 through massive work by the national parks and wildlife service, projects like ours and local farmers...the bird was incredibly widespread in Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s and in recent years they almost went extinct and it's a miracle we have any left at all," Mr Carey said.
In terms of working with farmers to protect the bird, he said that the project is not being reactive with farmers, rather sitting down with them to create a plan at the beginning of the year to focus delaying the mowing of meadows so there are no surprises and the farmers can plan around it which is a results based model for habitat of the corncrake.
He said that over 120 farmers are involved and a lot more people seeking to come in to the initiative, as farmers realise it's a good economic model to manage their land for the environment.
Read more: Increase in number of recorded Corncrakes in Ireland
