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Conservationists bidding to save one of the UK's "red-listed" endangered bird species have hatched 26 chicks.

The black-tailed godwits - which have fewer than 60 UK nests - are being hand-reared in the joint RSPB and Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) scheme.

The majority of the birds are found in the Nene Washes in Cambridgeshire and the Ouse Washes on the Cambridgeshire and Norfolk border.

The ground-nesting birds are vulnerable to spring flooding and predators.

Staff from Project Godwit were granted a licence from Natural England to collect 32 eggs, which were incubated at WWT's Welney centre on the Ouse Washes in a method known as "headstarting".

Staff at the WWT Welney centre are hand-rearing the chicks until they are old enough to be homed outside.