A birdkeeper wore a GoPro to film some of the first white storks to hatch in Britain for centuries emerging from their shells, being hand-fed - then flying off into the wild.

The never-before-seen footage shows the birds from incubation to hatching, picking at the helper in their early days - before they leave the nests for warmer climates.

Staff at Cotswold Wildlife Park have bred 21 storks as part of an ambitious rewilding programme, The White Stork Project.

The scheme, set up in 2016, aims to restore wild stork populations to Britain for the first time since the 15th century.

Footage shows keeper Richard Wardle hand-feeding the chicks, which hatched in May, to maximise their chance of survival.

Clips also show the moment the storks were born and their behaviour as they begin to develop.

Once fully fledged and separated from the adults, the birds were weighed, sexed, microchipped at the park in Oxfordshire.

The birds were also fitted with highly visible leg rings to make them easily identifiable after their release.

They were then transferred to Knepp Castle Estate in West Sussex in August for their release into the wild - a momentous moment for the entire team.

Jamie Craig, curator at Cotswold Wildlife Park, said: "It is an honour for the park to be involved in such a fantastic project, releasing these birds into the stunning surroundings at Knepp and watching them soar on the thermals gives an enormous sense of pride and achievement for all involved."

Scientists at the University of East Anglia (UEA) are now tracking the white storks in a bid to find out about migratory habits that disappeared more than 600 years ago.

The birds are already said to be providing valuable data that will enable the researchers to gain insights into their life and choices.

Previously unpublished data from the 2019 trial reveals that many of the storks spent the winter in Southern Europe and Northern Africa, where they have adapted to take advantage of new food resources and gather in large numbers.

GPS trackers were fitted to eight of the storks released this year.

Last month they embarked on their first migratory journey and several of the youngsters have crossed the channel and are making their way south.

Latest tracking data received on Wednesday (14/10) reveals that two juveniles have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar into Morocco.

The White Stork Project aims to have at least 50 breeding pairs across the south of England by 2030.

The last definitive record of storks raising chicks in Britain was in 1416, when two nested in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Anyone who spots one of the storks from the project - identifiable by the coloured rings - can report their sightings here: https://www.whitestorkproject.org/report-a-sighting.