THE corncrake - one of Europe's rarest birds- has successfully bred in North Yorkshire for the first time in decades.

The discovery was made when the bird's distinctive mating call was heard by a farmer in the Pennine Dales Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) earlier this summer.

Corncrakes are one of two species listed as globally threatened which breed in the UK.

Staff at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) were determined to protect the newcomers and developed a management plan to enable the farmer to continue working his land while protecting the birds.

Conservation minister Elliot Morley said: ''I'm impressed and heartened at the speed and effectiveness with which everyone involved in this extraordinary project acted.

''The result is a significant conservation achievement, and very exciting news for the English countryside.''

The last count of corncrakes, in 1998, recorded 589 singing males, which until now wereconfined to the north of Scotland and Ireland.

The birds are extremely shy and so rarely seen that they can only be identified by the distinctive rattling sound emitted by the males, meaning the number of females is unknown.

Although concerted action in the 1990s halted the decline, numbers fell dramatically in the early part of the 20th Century because of changes in farming, particularly the introduction of mechanised mowing.

Corncrakes favour traditionally farmed grassland in which they can hide, lay eggs and raise chicks. But as mechanised mowing was introduced, flightless chicks reluctant to break cover fell victim to machines, with a devastating effect on the species.

Martin O'Hanlon, Defra's senior advisor for the Pennine Dales ESA, said: ''Once we knew the bird was there we took every precaution we could to ensure that if any eggs were laid, the chicks would have the best possible chance of survival.''

A bird-friendly mowing pattern, which would allow any chicks to escape to the edge of the field, was agreed with the farmer.

Experience gained in Scotland showed that cutting from the middle of a field outwards offered the chicks a chance of moving to the field's edges, and thus surviving.

When the farmer, whose identity has not been disclosed to ensure that the breeding location remains a closely guarded secret, cut his meadows he reported seeing two chicks running clear.

Next year the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds will undertake a major census of corncrake numbers, which may indicate whether this year's success has been part of a wider trend