Rare bitterns are bouncing back with the highest number of "booming" males recorded since the nineteenth century, wildlife experts said.

The elusive heron-like birds, which were driven to extinction in the UK, have been helped by European conservation measures which have supported the restoration and creation of wetland habitat that they rely on, the RSPB said.

The bird, prized as a medieval banquet dish and hit by hunting and the loss of its reedbed habitat as wetlands were drained, became extinct in the UK in 1886.

It managed to recolonise the Norfolk Broads in 1911, but while numbers rose until the 1950s they then crashed once more to a low point in 1997.

The shy, well-camouflaged bitterns are hard to spot, but mating males can be counted from their loud, distinctive boom-like call which carries several miles across marshland.

The latest survey has revealed there were 140 booming males across 61 sites in 2014, up from just 11 males at seven sites in 1997.

The RSPB credits the EU's Life-Nature programme for supporting it and other organisations to recreate wetland habitat. The wildlife charity also said EU protections for birds have helped by requiring the UK Government to take action to boost bittern numbers, designating and ensuring habitat is properly managed for the birds.

Martin Harper, director of conservation at the RSPB, said:" Thanks to protection under European laws and key partners working together, bittern numbers have been gradually climbing since 2000.

"Bitterns needed conservation on a country-wide, landscape scale and without the support of the EU's Birds Directive, which protects all European wild birds and the habitats of listed species like the bittern, this would not have been possible.

"The bittern success story should give hope that it is possible to recover threatened species and that it makes sense to protect the laws that protect nature."