Threatened farmland birds are likely to survive the winter better on conventional farms with specially designed wildlife habitats than on organic farms without according to a new study from the University of Southampton.
Winter farmland bird populations compared across three different wildlife schemes showed the ‘Conservation Grade’ approach, that aims to grow crops efficiently while requiring farmers to establish and manage specific habitats for wildlife, produced higher survival rates than the organic sites.
The researcher, Dominic Harrison, said the greatest numbers of chaffinches, skylarks, yellowhammers and lapwings were recorded on Conservation Grade farms.
“A strong link was found between the number of specially-designed habitats created and the richness of bird species found,” he said.
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