[petesergeant]

An ostrich or a crane: https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/555039/view

I'd say a crane is a pretty good guess though, given it's a falconry picture; Wikipedia says

> The common crane (Grus grus) is generally believed to have been a breeding bird in Britain in the Middle Ages. English people prized cranes as the "noblest quarry" for a falconer, and gladly ate them. In December 1212 King John flew his gyrfalcons at cranes at Ashwell, in Cambridgeshire, and killed seven, and on another occasion in Lincolnshire in February 1213 he brought down nine.

[seabass-labrax]

I want to know what happened to the cranes - you'd think a few would escape and survive in the wild. Were they all hunted, or did the environment of Britain become somehow completely unsuitable for them between the middle ages and now? Relevant reading lists welcome :)

[ptrott2017]

Historic crane populations crashed due to hunting and then loss of habitat as wetlands were drained and agriculture and housing expanded etc. Today you can find cranes in the wild in Norfolk, Suffolk and the Fens district which are all regions with sizeable wetland habitats due to active protection and reintroduction programs. There are small groups of other breeding pairs elsewhere in the UK as well. See following for a quick backgrounder:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/whats-happening/news/the-great-crane...