At Least 756 Pairs of Sandwich Terns Nest Where Bird Flu Emptied the Colony

At least 756 breeding pairs of sandwich terns, a type of seabird, nested at RSPB Pagham Harbour in West Sussex, England, in 2026 and raised 570 fledglings. The Guardian reported the result on Oct. 19. Bird flu had driven the birds out in 2022, and no pairs nested there in 2023.²⁵

Zero is a hard number to build on. BirdGuides describes the 2026 total as a record for the site and calls it one of the largest sandwich tern colonies in England, and the Guardian report calls it one of the largest ever recorded in the Solent region.³⁵

The 756 counts breeding pairs, not individual birds. The 570 fledglings are young birds old enough to leave the nest.²

What bird flu did in 2022

The colony was hit by highly pathogenic avian influenza, often shortened to HPAI, a severe form of bird flu. At Pagham, the terns abandoned their island completely.²⁴

They were not the only casualties. Wez Smith, a senior project manager at the RSPB, said that sandwich terns, black-headed gulls and Mediterranean gulls were “hit severely by HPAI/bird flu, leading to the abandonment of their breeding colony at Pagham harbor,” in remarks reported by Good News Network.¹

Related: Sussex Terns Now Nest in a Gated Community With 24/7 Cameras. 756 Pairs Moved In.

How the colony came back

The RSPB credits “hundreds of hours of conservation action” for the return. Pagham now has three islands that support breeding sandwich terns, and the newest one was created in 2021.³

The island work includes vegetation management, maintenance of exclusion fencing, biosecurity checks and round-the-clock monitoring.³

It is part of the Solent Seascape Project, a partnership that restores habitats and wildlife along England’s south coast. Its methods include predator-proof fencing, rat monitoring, vegetation removal and volunteer patrols, which reduce disturbance to nesting birds from visitors and dogs.¹³⁵

West Sussex County Council, Arun District Council and Chichester District Council support the recovery work at Pagham.³

Smith summed it up in remarks reported by Good News Network:

“It’s taken several years of dedicated conservation action, but the situation began to ‘tern’ around last year, and the site is now thriving with record-breaking populations using it.”

Other birds along the coast

Little terns, ringed plovers, black-headed gulls and oystercatchers have also increased in number thanks to the same conservation work, according to Good News Network. That report did not give figures for those species.¹

Elsewhere on the coast, at RSPB Medmerry, floating rafts give common terns and black-headed gulls nesting space that predators cannot reach. Rafts have also boosted the number of breeding common terns at West Hayling in Hampshire.⁵