A concerning trend from this year’s NatureScot-BTO report shows that, although pastoral and woodland bird numbers are higher than 1994 levels, all farmland bird levels have decreased over the past 10 years, with arable and wet farmland bird numbers now lower than a decade ago. Farmland birds need diversity, nesting sites and food sources to sustain them, and these long-term changes in their numbers are caused by intensified agriculture, climate change, reduced diversity of crop types and spring-sown crops.

As Scotland works towards halting biodiversity loss by 2030 and restoring nature by 2045, a collaborative project that is making a difference to farmland species in its local area is Clyde Valley Waders. Consisting of 20 farmers focused on the lapwing (also known as peewit), the project’s field trials have seen 80 percent nesting success compared to the typical 20 percent. The Corn Bunting Recovery Project run by RSPB in partnerships with farmers, land managers and the East Neuk Estates Group has also seen improvements in corn bunting populations in North East Scotland. Agri-environment climate schemes such as these have been in place in Scotland for more than 20 years and were introduced to tackle the negative environmental impacts of industrialised farming by financially supporting management options that provide food for farmland birds. While these projects are clearly benefitting local populations, the recovery is not yet showing signs of happening at scale. This is due to other factors such as our changing climate.

Despite the results for farmland birds, over the past decade, 39 of the 66 terrestrial breeding birds included in the annual report have increased in abundance and 27 have decreased. Overall, most of the 66 bird species saw a major increase from 1994 to the mid-2000s before stabilising or decreasing over the past 15-20 years.