Skylarks have declined dramatically on UK farmland, with welfare implications from food insecurity and loss of nesting habitat in improved grassland.
Skylarks in food-poor farmland face chick starvation as insect prey declines. Nest losses to agricultural operations are significant. The welfare cost of intensification is experienced daily by millions of individual farmland birds. Skylark plots and insect-supporting farming practices have measurable welfare benefits at individual and population levels.