My brother photographed one last week It's a crane, Grus grus.
Not a great photo but good enough to see clearly that it's a crane. It's thought these imposing birds were once common in Britain but they were hunted for their feathers and to put on the tables of the upper classes. According to Gurney (quoted in [1]) in 1251 Henry III held a Christmas feast at York at which 115 cranes were eaten (amongst other things presumably).
So from overhunting they became rarer and rarer and 1542 was the last time the birds were reconded as breeding in England.
Until 1979, when a couple of young cranes flew in. There had been occasion migrants in the intervening period but no breeding pairs — but these two did.
So some birds flew here of their own accords and there has now been some reintroduction, and no there are an estimated 250 birds in the UK. In 2025 there were 87 pairs documented and 37 chicks were raised.
So a comeback, but it's still a very rare bird in the UK and my brother was lucky to spot this one.
[1] Andrew Stanbury and the UK Crane Working Group, The changing status of the Common Crane in the UK.