The bird is normally found in Iberia and Russia

The bustard is the heaviest flying bird in the world and disappeared from the UK countryside in the 1870s.

The great bustard group was set up by enthusiasts in South Wiltshire five years ago to reintroduce the rare bird.

In 2003, it applied for a government licence to import chicks from Russia, a licence now granted by Defra Minister Ben Bradshaw.

A total of 40 chicks will be reintroduced to Salisbury Plain every year for the next ten years, with the first batch due to arrive next June.

Foxes are the greatest threat to their survival, but the normal survival rate in the wild is 25% David Walters Great bustard group

David Walters, chairman of the great bustard group, told the BBC: "This is new ground for everyone.

"The birds are legally defined as a non-native species and this is partly why the process has taken so long.

"Foxes are the greatest threat to their survival, but the normal survival rate in the wild is 25% and there are less foxes here than in Russia.

"If we can match or exceed that, there should be a self-sustaining population in Wiltshire in the next five years."

The great bustard is normally found in Russia, northern Europe and the Iberian peninsula.

Ornithologists from Russia recently visited the UK to advise the project.