RARELY studied upland birds may be as vulnerable as songbirds to climate change, according to research.

Scientists from the RSPB and Newcastle and Manchester universities have found that the golden plover is breeding significantly earlier than 20 years ago.

It is a typical upland bird found on the moors and peat bogs of the Pennines, including the North Pennines and Teesdale, Northumberland, Peak and Lake Districts and the Highlands.

The scientists, including Dr Mark Whittingham, a research fellow at Newcastle University's School of Biology, said warmer springs have prompted the change.

They believe the failure of the plover chick's main prey, daddy long legs or craneflies, to adapt at the same rate, could threaten the plover's future. Other upland species such as greenshank and red grouse could be affected in the same way.

Dr James Pearce-Higgins, research biologist at the RSPB, said: "The earliest hatching plover chicks, which normally have the best chance of survival, could in future struggle to find food, reducing their overall breeding success and threatening the population size.

"Any escalation of climate change will put in peril not just the plover but other moorland and peatland species as well."