The curlew is the UK most at-risk breeding bird, with population declines driven by a combination of habitat loss, predation pressure, and agricultural change.
Individual curlews that fail to breed repeatedly invest energy in nesting attempts only to experience repeated loss. The prolonged incubation period of around 30 days means that nest losses late in incubation represent a particularly significant energy cost. Chick predation is rapid, but adults defending nests experience acute stress from predator approaches. Climate change is creating a mismatch between curlew chick timing and peak invertebrate availability. Conservation interventions that reduce nest failure improve welfare by enabling successful breeding, the most fundamental expression of biological function for a bird species.