Above the roar of traffic, the rumble of the tube and the juddering construction noise of a towering new datacentre in Dagenham, east London , will soon rise a beautiful and unlikely melody: the bill-clattering of white storks.

The birds will next year make a historic return to the UK capital as part of an ambitious rewilding effort to bring charismatic nature into busy city communities.

Following the successful reintroduction of the birds to the Knepp estate in West Sussex, 45 miles south of central London, the species will be helped back to the city in a project that will also return beavers to flooded former gravel pits in Eastbrookend Country Park , Dagenham.

“It’s thrilling,” said Sam Davenport, the director of nature recovery at London Wildlife Trust , which is working wit

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