Montagu's harriers are the UK's rarest breeding raptor, with only a handful of pairs nesting annually. Their precarious foothold depends on arable farming practices and dedicated nest protection programmes.
Montagu's harrier welfare at the individual level is almost entirely determined by the success or failure of nest protection. Nests discovered in crops face destruction from agricultural machinery unless farmers are contacted and harvesting patterns adjusted. Chicks killed by machinery suffer traumatic deaths; adults lose entire breeding attempts. The anxiety of nest monitoring - keeping cameras and volunteer wardens at nests through the breeding season - is an enormous investment by conservationists that benefits only a handful of pairs. At this scale of rarity, every individual Montagu's harrier matters enormously to the species' UK presence.