The skylark, celebrated in British poetry for its soaring song, has declined by over 60% on UK farmland since the 1970s. The switch from spring to autumn-sown cereals eliminated the open nest spaces that skylarks need.
Skylarks unable to find appropriate open nesting habitat lose breeding opportunities in successive years. Nests in tall dense crops fail due to difficulty in landing and departing, increased predation risk, and reduced chick mobility. Persistent nest failure across consecutive years represents a welfare harm through loss of reproductive opportunity. Agricultural change that eliminates nesting habitat at the landscape scale forces birds to attempt nesting in suboptimal areas with higher failure rates and greater energy expenditure.