The Prince of Wales took a trip up to Sandringham, the Queen's Norfolk estate, on Tuesday for a very special reason.

Prince Charles, 72, joined Natural England's Chair, Tony Juniper, to release one of the country's most iconic threatened species – the Eurasian curlew - following an innovative Natural England-led partnership project to boost populations in the East of England.

The Queen, who traditionally spends her Christmas break at Sandringham, traveled to her Scottish estate, Balmoral, last week.

The curlew is Europe's largest wading bird and is now red-listed, meaning it is of the highest conservation priority, needing urgent action. The UK is home to roughly a quarter of the global breeding population of curlew – some 58,500 pairs – but the species has suffered very significant declines since the 1970s due to loss of habitat and predation, with lowland England experiencing some of the most severe declines.