Lapwings have declined severely on UK farmland and upland sites with welfare-significant breeding failure from predation, nest loss, and chick starvation.
Lapwing welfare at breeding sites is threatened by both direct nest destruction from cultivation and indirect chick starvation from invertebrate-poor habitats. Nests destroyed by cultivation cause direct egg mortality and welfare stress to adults making repeated nesting attempts. Chicks that hatch in habitats with insufficient invertebrates starve within days. Conservation management including nest protection from cultivation, creation of shallow scrapes, and management of invertebrate-rich sward directly improves welfare outcomes for individual breeding birds and chicks.