The hawfinch is the largest UK finch and one of the most secretive, with powerful bill capable of cracking cherry and hornbeam stones, but its population has declined sharply as ancient woodland is lost and degraded.
Hawfinches depend on ancient woodland with mature hornbeam, cherry, wych elm, and yew for food and breeding. Loss and fragmentation of such woodland has caused severe population decline. The species is highly sensitive to disturbance during the breeding season, and nest failures from corvid predation are common. Winter roosts in yew woodland are particularly vulnerable to clear-felling and recreational disturbance.