Corn buntings have declined catastrophically in the UK, persisting only in areas with specific farming practices that provide both nesting habitat and winter food.
Corn bunting decline reflects landscape-scale welfare harm from the loss of the specific farming practices the species requires. Winter survival depends critically on seed food availability that has been eliminated across most of lowland Britain. Agri-environment schemes that restore overwinter stubble and delayed harvesting directly improve individual welfare outcomes for one of the UK's most threatened farmland birds.