Wildlife

Corn Bunting Farmland Decline and Recovery

Corn buntings are one of the UK's fastest declining farmland birds, requiring targeted agricultural management for recovery.

Key Facts

UK corn bunting populations declined by 91% between 1970 and 2019
Corn buntings require large areas of cereal crops with weedy margins and stubble fields
Winter stubble retention provides critical seed food sources when other food is scarce
Corn buntings polygynous males may hold territories over several farms making landscape-scale management essential
The RSPB's Hope Farm has demonstrated that targeted management can reverse local population decline

Welfare Considerations

Corn buntings face starvation and breeding failure in intensively farmed landscapes with no winter stubble, clean field margins and early cutting regimes. Individual birds experience nutritional stress in winter and reproductive failure when suitable nesting cover is absent. Recovery requires coordinated landscape-scale management across multiple farm holdings.

What You Can Do

Advocate for agri-environment scheme payments for winter stubble retention and weedy margins
Support RSPB farmland bird conservation campaigns and Hope Farm programme
Record corn bunting sightings with BTO BBS to track population recovery
Engage with local farming community about farmland bird habitat management