“…This was the result of a certain tolerance by the farmers of neglected remaining areas (George 1995). The frequent occurrence of open patches within the fields, together with the less intensive use of fertilisers and pesticides before German re‐unification (George 1995), might be factors behind the higher density (Jenny 1990c, Schön 1999). In contrast, two factors might be crucial to the future success of Skylarks in eastern Germany: first, the proportion of fields with lucerne or grass crops has decreased recently (George 1995), and these used to be suitable breeding and feeding habitats (Pätzold 1993; this study); second, the percentage of winter cereals is greater than it was before 1990, a situation offering fewer suitable breeding habitats in summer and a low diversity of arthropods as food (Jenny 1990a, George 1995).…”