Skylark
19 July 2010
The skylark is England’s quintessential farmland bird. Although still one of our most widespread breeding birds, the skylark population plummeted from the mid-1970s to the mid-180s, and numbers have continued to fall at a slower rate ever since. The decline is strongly linked to the intensification of farming.
Skylark with chicks (c) P.N. Watts
Latin name: Alauda arvensis
Population numbers:
A 1997 survey suggested an English breeding population of around 635,000 pairs although, given recent trends, there are likely to be significantly fewer today.
Where to see and when:
Skylarks nest and feed on the ground where short vegetation provides the required nesting cover and bare or sparsely vegetated areas allows access to the ground for foraging. The male’s characteristic song-flight can be experienced in most open habitats during the breeding season, from upland grasslands to coastal dunes and marshes, although the bulk of the population occurs on lowland farmland. During winter, the bird is largely an inhabitant of arable fields.
What’s being done:
The plight of the skylark is typical of the problems faced by much of our farmland wildlife in recent decades. Detailed field studies have showed that the loss of rotational mixed farming and, especially, the switch from spring to autumn sowing of cereal crops has resulted in the birds having lower breeding success and surviving the winter less well. These studies paved the way for developing land management measures that provide nesting sites and year-round food supplies for skylarks, and these have been introduced as options (eg skylark plots) within Environmental Stewardship.
More information:
