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The curlew chicks saved by a thermal drone

A curlew chick in a grassy field. It has blonde, orange and brown fur in a tortoiseshell pattern. It is as cute as you'd expect.Getty Images

A thermal drone has become the unlikely hero of curlew chicks in Cumbria.

A bird protection charity has been using the technology to find chicks in nests before farmers cut the grass in their fields and harm them.

Curlews are endangered in the UK. In 2015 they were added to the Red List on the UK Conservation Status Report, which means they need help urgently.

So far, the charity Curlew Recovery South Lakes has found and saved six curlew nests using the drone.

An adult curlew, which is about the size of - and looks somewhat similar to - a duck, except it has an enormous, thin beak stretching from its face. Getty Images

Curlews lay their eggs in a "scrape", which is a nest on the ground.

This means that eggs or chicks can be harmed by predators like foxes, or if they've made the scrape on farmland, by farming practices.

The UK's breeding curlew population has halved in the last 25 years.

Barney Sykes is the drone pilot and says that "farmers have been fantastic" about their work.

"Once a nest is fenced, farm operations can continue safely around it...Some have even adjusted cutting times to help the birds".

How much do you know about curlews?

Eurasian Curlew walking in waterGetty Images

  • Curlews breed in wet grasslands, farmland and moorlands.

  • They are wading birds, which means they are often seen in shallow water. Their long legs give them a clear view of the water, and they use their long bill like chopsticks to pick worms out of the deep mud.

  • They typically live for about 5 years.

  • Curlews are globe trotters. Whilst the UK has a population of curlews that stay all year round, it's also home to 30% of the west European population in the winter.