THE project to establish a breeding population of Great Bustards on Salisbury Plain took another step forward last week when a adult male was seen displaying to a female.

The male is one of a batch released in the summer of 2005 and is still young to be thinking of starting a family.

But the fact that he has found his way back to the release site at Enford, near Pewsey, is highly encouraging news for the Great Bustard Group.

Dave Waters, who runs the group with his wife Karen, said: "Most of the Great Bustards we have released on the Plain spend the winter away from the area.

"Most go to Dorset but other birds have gone to Devon, Somerset and some even to France.

"A Great Bustard released in 2005 on Salisbury Plain returned to the release site in 2006, but was too young to breed.

"It returned to the site last week and was seen displaying to a female Great Bustard."

The display of the Great Bustard, the world's heaviest flying bird, is one of the most spectacular sights in the world of birds.

The males invert their feathers and turn their wings inside out, while inflating a large pouch in the front of their necks.

The resultant mass of white feathers has been described as a giant snow flake or a foam bath.

The birds have been brought over from the Saratov area of the Russian Steppes, hatched from eggs found in abandoned nests.

Because of the distance that the birds range from their release site, the group still do not know exactly how many of the birds they have released over the last three years are still alive.

So news of the birds returning has been welcomed with much joy among the group's supporters.

Mr Waters referred to an article in the Birds of Wiltshire in 1887 when the Rev Smith wrote: "We have seen no more of this bird, at once the largest, the noblest and the most highly prized of all our British birds; and for which our county was so notorious."

Mr Waters said: "For me to be able to see the incredible sight of a male Great Bustard displaying on Salisbury Plain 120 years after the sad words of the Rev Smith is simply fantastic."

The Great Bustard is displayed on the county council's arms.