Redshank populations have declined by over 40% on British farmland since the 1980s due to loss of wet grassland habitat. Their welfare depends on a reversal of drainage intensification in lowland agricultural landscapes.
Redshank welfare is directly affected by the loss of wet grassland that has accompanied agricultural intensification of lowland Britain. Pairs returning to fields that have been drained or improved find unsuitable habitat and fail to breed. Chicks that hatch in wet grassland with insufficient shallow water for feeding face nutritional stress in their critical early weeks. These are preventable welfare harms that agri-environment schemes can address by incentivising wet grassland management, delayed mowing, and maintenance of shallow scrapes.