Does best-practice crowCorvus coroneand magpiePica picacontrol on UK farmland improve nest success in hedgerow-nesting songbirds? A field experiment

The role of predation by corvids on the breeding output of songbirds is unclear. Using a randomised‐pair design, we measured how nest success of hedgerow‐nesting passerines responded to the experimental removal of carrion crows and magpies. We worked in southern England at 32 paired sites around 4 km 2 each, one with and one without best‐practice corvid control, studying four different pairs per year for four years 2011–2014. We counted corvids,...