The midlands have been identified as one of the last places in the State where birdwatchers can see one of Ireland's most endangered species.
The number of hen harriers, one of Ireland's largest birds of prey, has fallen to fewer than 100 pairs on the entire island over the last 20 years.
The hen harrier, a Red Data species in Ireland and an "Annex 1" species under the EU Birds Directive, had an estimated population of between 200-300 pairs in the early 1970s.
The bird is normally found in the breeding season in young conifer plantations. They fared well in the south and east when large areas of upland were planted in the 1960s.
However, numbers began to decline as the plantations began to mature and according to a report in Wings magazine, the birds did not capitalise on the shift to new forestry plantings in the 1980s, particularly on the western blanket bogs.
According to the author of the report, Dave Norris of Duchas, the hen harrier seemed unable to exploit the opportunities presented by new plantations.
Meanwhile, substantial areas of prime breeding habitat in the hill farms of east Munster had been lost, either reclaimed by agriculture or planted with conifers.
Hen harriers are known to hunt over marginal farmland, open heath and pre-thicket and clear-fell conifer plantations but in Ireland the relative importance of these three habitats is not known.
Last year a hen harrier survey in Britain and Northern Ireland was set up. The Irish Raptor Study Group, BirdWatch Ireland and Duchas, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, have organised an Irish survey to provide a national population estimate.
While that work is ongoing, the field workers have found 58 definite pairs of harriers and 13 "possible" pairs but it is not yet possible to determine what percentage of the breeding population has been found.
However, findings to date indicate that the areas of old red sandstone hills to the south midlands and the south west, particularly the Slieve Blooms, hold a number of breeding pairs.
The midlands birds have been identified as territorial-holding pairs which should mean the birds will breed there.
Other areas identified include Slieve Aughty, Slieve Felim, Mullaghareirk, the Ballyhoura hills and the Nagle mountains.
The survey in the North found 30-35 breeding pairs located mainly on the Antrim plateau and in the Fermanagh/Monaghan area.