The avocet returned to breed in England in 1947 after over a century of absence and has become one of conservation's great success stories, but faces ongoing welfare challenges.
Avocet welfare at breeding sites depends on water level management, predator control, and disturbance limitation. Lagoon water levels must be carefully managed to provide optimal mud exposure for feeding while ensuring enough depth that eggs and chicks are not accessible to land predators. Fox predation is a major cause of nest failure and chick mortality. Human disturbance at nest sites, particularly from dogs off leads, causes nest abandonment. Coastal squeeze as sea levels rise is a long-term threat to the low-lying habitats avocets depend on. Managed realignment creating new coastal wetlands provides habitat compensation for areas lost to inundation.