CONSERVATIONISTS have brought one of the world's most endangered species of bird from a remote breeding ground in Russia to Gloucestershire.

The 13 spoon-billed sandpipers have now completed the final stage of an epic 8,000km journey and are settling in at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve in Slimbridge.

WWT experts will now to attempt to save the species from extinction by starting a captive breeding programme.

Throughout 2011, conservationists from Birds Russia worked with WWT and the RSPB on an emergency rescue mission for the species, culminating in the expedition to the remote Russian far east to take eggs from some of the nests and hatch them in captivity.

They were then brought to the UK, via a 60-day quarantine in Moscow Zoo, where the climate is suitable for their year-round care.

Now at Slimbridge they will be quarantined for further 30 days and moved to purpose-built aviaries, which will be the focus of the conservation-breeding programme.

Nigel Jarrett, head of conservation breeding at the WWT, said: "The hopes of the conservation movement worldwide have been riding on this mission and it is an incredibly difficult thing to do successfully."

The spoon-billed sandpiper, a shorebird whose unique appearance and extreme rarity has given it near-mythical status among birdwatchers, has never been hatched or kept in captivity before.