Research by the Thetford-based British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) reveals numbers have plummeted by more than a third across East Anglia.

It blames changes in farming practises, which have decimated the insects the tiny birds which migrate to our shores from sub-Saharan Africa depend on for food for themselves and their young.

Viola Ross-Smith, the BTO's science communications manager, said its breeding bird surveys showed swallow numbers fell by 38pc across the region........

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