The corn bunting is one of the UK's most declining farmland birds, having lost 90% of its population since 1970. It is now confined to large open arable landscapes in a handful of UK counties.
Corn bunting welfare is inseparable from the management of open cereal arable landscapes. The loss of weedy field margins, overwinter stubble and set-aside under the CAP has eliminated food resources across much of their former range. The species is effectively locally extinct across much of Britain. Recovery requires landscape-scale agri-environment management with targeted higher-tier agreements.