Corn buntings are farmland birds that have declined catastrophically, with welfare directly linked to the invertebrate-rich farmland they require for chick rearing.
Corn bunting chicks that cannot access sufficient invertebrates starve progressively during their most critical development period. Adults in fragmented populations face difficulty finding mates and defending adequate territories. The welfare costs of population collapse include individual breeding failures and the physiological stress of declining habitat quality. Recovery at sites with appropriate management demonstrates that welfare improvement is achievable through targeted intervention.