Once a common sight in the state, the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow was reduced to just 11 breeding pairs in 2018 due to the loss of its prairie habitat. The situation was so dire that scientists decided to remove the remaining birds from the wild and breed them in captivity.

Credits: Getty Images; Author: Marcia Strab;

Last week, the breeding programme reached an important milestone, as the 1,000th Florida grasshopper sparrow was released into the wild, where the birds are thought to be stabilising.