Farmland birds have suffered huge declines in the past half century or so. Yellowhammer populations, for example, decreased by 64 per cent between 1967 and 2022, and linnets by 23 per cent since the mid-1990s.
In recent decades, conservationists have tried to persuade farmers to adopt more wildlife-friendly farming methods, usually by signing up to one of the agri-environment schemes that offer additional subsidies in return for creating better, more diverse habitats for birds and insects.
But now they have another trick up their sleeve – encourage farmers to turn to install solar panels on their land, because new research has shown this can have a hugely beneficial impact for wildlife.
Scientists from the RSPB and the University of Cambridge compared bird abundance and diversity between three distinct land uses – intensive arable farmland, solar farms that are not managed for wildlife and solar farms that are.
Perhaps not surprisingly, solar farms with what the scientists call mixed habitat came out better than those with simple habitat, but both did substantially better than the intensively farmed land.
For example, species abundance in the farm setting was 12 birds per 200-metre transect, but 17 for simple solar habitat and 35 for mixed. There were more than twice as many farmland birds in the well-managed solar farms compared with the intensively farmed land, and nearly 16 times as many woodland birds.
The complex solar habitat also performed much better in terms of species diversity or richness. Overall, diversity was 2.5 times higher, while woodland birds were nine times more diverse.
According to lead author Dr Joshua Copping of the RSPB, finding ways to reverse the long-term decline in farmland birds is challenging.
"The results of this study suggest that solar farms managed well for nature could make an important contribution and provide relief from the effects of agricultural intensification on these and other species in the surrounding landscape,” he says.
Main image: solar panels and farmland in England/Getty
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