Nest of Cornwall's emblem guarded round the clock

A pair of rare wild birds breeding on the Cornish cliffs are under 24-hour guard to protect them from egg thieves.

A pair of rare wild birds breeding on the Cornish cliffs are under 24-hour guard to protect them from egg thieves.

The chough, considered the emblem of Cornwall, had not bred in the county for 50 years until last summer when three chicks were born. The return of the chough is considered highly important in Cornish mythology because it is thought to signify the resurgence of Cornish independence.

A member of the crow family, the chough has distinctive red legs and a long red bill. The nesting site is on a remote and windswept clifftop spot on the Lizard peninsula, whose cliffs are home to many wild varieties of plants not found anywhere else in the country.

The birds returned in the summer of 2001 and successfully raised three young last year, observed by bird-watchers from across the country. But conservationists fear the rare birds' high profile makes them a prime target for egg collectors. Sixty volunteers from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds began a 24-hour "chough watch" this week to protect the nesting site during the breeding season. Emma Parkin, an RSPB spokeswoman, stressed that illegally collecting wild birds' eggs was punishable by a fine or even imprisonment.

"It is a trophy exercise for the eggers, who will travel all around the country," she said. "Because these are the first choughs in Cornwall for 50 years, we believe they're in real danger."

Choughs forage for insects on grassy clifftop areas of west Wales, Scotland, Ireland and Brittany. Chough numbers in Cornwall gradually fell in the 20th century because of changes in farming methods and the loss of grazing land along the county's coasts.

Their return to the county came after a decade of work by conservationists, farmers and landowners to restore the birds' nesting and feeding habitats.