Moves to prevent the black grouse from disappearing have proved so successful that a conservation project to save it is to be more than doubled in size.
Black grouse are a threatened species but measures taken by landowners and farmers have boosted their population in England by a third in ten years.
Numbers of males rose from 773 in 1998 to 1,029 in 2006 as habitat improvements provided the creatures with better shelter and more food.
The project in the North Pennines is now to be expanded to the Yorkshire Dales and into the North West of Northumberland where the species has suffered a disasterous decline.
The two new areas are regarded by conservationists as vital to the long term prospects of the bird which slumped in England because of loss of habitat and modern farming techniques.
Black grouse in Wales and Scotland have also suffered but to a lesser degree. Just over 5,000 pairs are estimated to breed in Britain overall.
'The launch of this exciting new initiative is a real milestone in black grouse recovery,' said Phil Warren, of the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust and project officer for the recovery programme.
'The remarkable come-back of black grouse in the North Pennines is a huge achievement. We have demonstrated that through appropriate management we can reverse the decline of this threatened bird. The battle is now on to expand their range.'
He said the recovery in the North Pennines was made possible by the willingness of farmers, gamekeepers and grouse moor managers to change the way they worked.
'There is no doubt that without their support and enthusiasm we may have lost this enigmatic bird,' added Mr Warren.
Measures taken included encouraging the growth of plants that were required by the insects eaten by grouse chicks, and keeping down the numbers of generalist predators such as foxes and carrion crows.
Trees such as ash, rowan and hawthorn were encouraged because the grouse use them in winter as a source of food and shelter.
By expanding the project conservationists hope to create conditions that will allow the bird to spread southwards from a 45 square km area of the North Pennines into a 50 square km zone within the Yorkshire Dales.
In North West Northumberland an important remnant population of black grouse has been identified which the project organisers hope will increase rapidly and spread into neighbouring areas.
Black grouse are legal to hunt but landowners and the rest of the shooting community have recognised their rarity and try to avoid killing them.
Martin Howat of Natural England, one of several organisations involved in the project, said in time it was to be hoped the bird recovered sufficiently for sports shoots to be sustainable but that current numbers are 'a fair way off' that being possible.
Sir Martin Doughty, chair of Natural England said, 'Species recovery programmes of this kind are crucial for the continuing success of wildlife in England.'
Among the partners involved in running and funding the conservation programme are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Ministry of Defence, and Northumbrian Water.