The corncrake is Britain's most welfare-vulnerable migratory bird, relying almost entirely on traditional crofting practices in the Western Isles for its UK breeding population.
Corncrake welfare is entirely dependent on the continuation of traditional low-intensity crofting practices that have accidentally preserved their habitat. Mechanised early silage cutting kills eggs, chicks and adults directly — mowers can travel faster than birds can escape. Late cutting regimes, where cutting begins from the centre of the field outward, allow birds to escape into surrounding cover. Individual corncrakes that survive cutting mortality face increasing habitat isolation as machair grassland quality declines with agricultural intensification at field margins.