Landowners are missing out on a cash windfall which could help protect endangered birds - like the twite, whose stronghold includes the Keighley and Bradford areas.

Twenty-five hotspots have been identified in West Yorkshire, drawn up to protect waders such as curlews and lapwings and seed-eating twites.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds now needs to trace the landowners to encourage them to take part in a project aimed at halting the birds' decline and giving them safe havens.

Huge tracts of land around Stanbury and Oxenhope near Keighley - part of the South Pennine area - have been especially identified where landowners could win grants to preserve hay meadows and protect marshy pasture.

It is hoped to make the area a protected breeding zone for birds like twites, whose numbers have dropped by 50 per cent in other areas of the country, and waders like lapwing, snipes, curlews and redshanks.

Tim Cleeves, RSPB conservation officer, said some landowners were difficult to trace because the land was often under several ownerships.

"The land we have identified has been surveyed by conservation officers and still holds reasonable populations of these birds, so it makes sense to maintain these strongholds and hopefully build the conservation outwards," he said.

Landowners are being urged to draw up Countryside Stewardship Schemes and get the chance of winning ten year grants, including £150 a hectare a year to improve existing hay meadows and £60 a year to maintain rushy pasture.

"The grants can help develop management options including maintaining existing hay meadows, cutting later in the season, reducing stock numbers and, where possible, making special water level supplements," he added.

He said modern methods of farming, such as cutting silage instead of hay and improving drainage to enable more animals to use the land, made the land less attractive for the birds.

The waders need wetter land to probe for invertebrates and the twite feed on seeds, which were more plentiful on land which was left longer for hay, rather than cut early for silage.

The society has already located the owners of some of the land, but others are unknown. Information should be passed on to Julian Carlisle or Caroline Ashton on (01924) 306552.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.