The bird has not been seen in Britain since 1832

Forty Great Bustard chicks will be brought over from the Saratov region of Russia in June, with the help of UK government and European funding.

They will be taken to Wiltshire for rearing and eventual release.

A government licence to import the chicks was granted last November after a five-year campaign by enthusiasts.

The Great Bustard once roamed grassland areas from the West Country to the Scottish Borders but was last seen in Britain in 1832.

It is now found in northern Europe and parts of Spain and the aim is to try to re-establish breeding birds in the English countryside.

Former police officer David Waters, from Wiltshire, has already invested �40,000 in the project.

We will be introducing them to a stuffed fox as part of predator awareness training Dr Patrick Osborne, a senior lecturer at Stirling University

He told a London news conference: "The chicks will be one or two weeks old and will be transported by air from Moscow to London around 1 June."

Environment minister Ben Bradshaw said: "This is the first attempt ever in England, and certainly the first since the 1970s in the UK as a whole, to re-introduce a species that was once resident here but is now extinct.

"The Great Bustard has been extinct since 1832 as a breeding bird and largely as a result of hunting by human beings.

"Eggs are going to be collected in the Soviet Union from nests that are threatened with destruction.

"They will be hatched out there and brought over here as chicks and kept for a while in pens on Salisbury Plain. Then when we are as confident as we can be that they have acclimatised they will be released into the wild."

The birds will be reared in Wiltshire

Dr Patrick Osborne, senior lecturer in environmental studies at Stirling University, said 40 chicks would be brought from Russia and have a quarantine period.

"We don't want the chicks to see people but we will be introducing them to a stuffed fox as part of predator awareness training," he said.

Great Bustards, which are omnivorous and include seeds, insects, moles and rats in their diet, nest in fields of crops and are thought to live for up to 25 years.

Adult males, which perform an elaborate courtship dance to attract females, can weigh up to 16kg and resemble a cross between a turkey and a golden eagle in flight.

The breeding project will be funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the European Agriculture Fund.