Lapwings and curlews are two of Britain most iconic wading birds, both of which have suffered severe population declines driven by agricultural change. Their conservation represents one of the most urgent farmland bird challenges.
Lapwing and curlew welfare involves both the individual suffering of birds killed during agricultural operations and the population-level suffering of breeding failure and decline. Curlews killed by silage cutters suffer traumatic deaths — as do the non-flying chicks unable to escape machinery. Nest failure through predation means prolonged parental investment that produces no surviving young. The welfare of adult birds facing repeated breeding failure — an increasingly common experience in degraded habitats — involves the stress of sustained but unsuccessful parental effort. Conservation measures including predator management, agri-environment scheme habitat, and scrape creation provide both population recovery and individual welfare benefits.