With an average lifespan of just five years, not many curlews have lived through Britpop, the turn of the millennium and nine different prime ministers.
But wildlife researchers this week captured a female curlew that was nearly 34 years old.
The large wading bird, nicknamed “Mrs Ogdens”, has broken the record as the oldest living bird of its species in the UK at 33 years and eight or nine months.
Curlews, known for their curved bill and eerie “cur-lee” call, typically live for five years, according to the Wildlife Trusts.
Flo Blackbourn, general manager of the Curlew Action charity, said: “A new record age for a curlew is remarkable, and a reminder of how long these birds can share our landscapes with us.”
Mrs Ogdens is believed to have hatched in the summer of 1992, and was first ringed as a juvenile on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, Dorset, in September that year.
The bird appears to have spent three decades untracked, until it was recaptured by researchers from Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) in the New Forest in 2022.
Researchers placed coloured rings around its leg – which help with identification – and fitted it with a satellite tag.
That summer, it successfully fledged one chick at the age of 29.
Mike Short, head of predation management research at GWCT, said that curlew chicks had never been recorded fledging in the New Forest before.
He said: “It just goes to show that even in this busy, human-dominated landscape here in the south of England, if you get the breeding conditions right for wild curlews, they can actually successfully reproduce even at the ripe old age of 29.”
Over the next couple of years, Mrs Ogdens’ movements continued to be tracked.
The bird was recorded spending its winters in Studland Heath in Dorset, the spring in the Avon Valley, near Bristol, and the summer breeding season in the New Forest.
In 2023 and 2024, it continued to attempt to breed in the New Forest, but did not manage to hatch any more chicks.
The bird was recaptured last week at Ogdens, a small hamlet near Fordingbridge in the New Forest, and was named after the area by researchers.
The previous UK and Irish longevity record was held by a curlew that was recovered in 2011, its age confirmed as 32 years and 7 months from its rings.
The Eurasian Curlew has declined by around 50 per cent in the UK in just 25 years.
In 2015, the species was added to the Red List on the UK Conservation Status Report, the highest conservation priority and in need of urgent help.