The curlew is considered the UK most urgent bird conservation priority, with the English breeding population having collapsed by over 50% in recent decades from wetland drainage and agricultural intensification.
Curlew welfare is compromised by habitat loss that forces birds to attempt breeding in suboptimal conditions with high nest failure rates. Chicks starving in intensively managed grassland represent individual welfare failures at scale. The emotional resonance of the curlew call makes this declining species a powerful flagship for the wider farmland wildlife crisis.