Corn buntings have declined by 90% and are now restricted to parts of eastern England and Scotland, with welfare depending on mixed farming systems that provide year-round food.
Corn buntings in impoverished arable landscapes face chronic nutritional stress from loss of mixed farming that provided year-round food diversity. Winter flocks unable to find sufficient seed in clean stubble-free fields experience progressive condition decline. Nesting in large cereal fields creates vulnerability to agricultural operations during the breeding season. The 90% population decline represents a catastrophic welfare and conservation outcome driven by agricultural policy that removed the features these birds require.