Advanced understanding of corn bunting ecology reveals the specific welfare constraints that have driven their catastrophic decline and informs targeted conservation management responses.
Individual corn buntings face welfare pressures across the annual cycle: insufficient invertebrate prey for chick provisioning in summer and inadequate seed food in winter. The collapse of mixed arable farming systems has simultaneously removed both breeding and wintering habitat. Targeted agri-environment management that provides both summer invertebrate-rich grassland and winter overwinter stubbles addresses welfare needs across the full annual cycle.