The common kestrel — once Europe's most familiar raptor — has declined sharply across much of its range, with intensive agriculture driving the collapse of the small mammal prey base on which it depends.
Kestrels experiencing prey scarcity face chronic food stress — the energy cost of sustained hovering flight is high, and birds that fail to find adequate prey may starve within days. Individuals that ingest rodenticide-contaminated prey suffer internal bleeding — a slow, painful death. Rehabilitation centres report that a significant proportion of kestrels admitted show evidence of rodenticide poisoning. The welfare of individual wild kestrels is inseparable from the health of the farmland ecosystems they depend on — improving habitat quality is therefore both a conservation and an animal welfare intervention.