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Yellowhammer

Emberiza citrinella

One of the common buntings in Europe and so closely related to the New World sparrows. The male can be really smart with yellow head and underparts - streaked with chestnut - a chestnut back streaked with black and a very rich chestnut rump.

Young birds and grotty females are best told from other buntings by the warm rufous suffusion on their rumps. The male's song is a monotonous series of notes followed by a wheeze - 'a little bit of bread and no cheeeeeese'. Most Yellowhammers are sedentary but there is quite a lot of displacement South in the winter particularly in Western Asia - where they breed as well as Europe. Another species in decline in Britain but still a common bird with well over 1,000,000 territories in Britain and Ireland.

The common yellow bunting over most of Europe (not the South)

The following Bird On! pictures are available:

Yellowhammer (Watercolour by Robert Gillmor)
Yellowhammer (Watercolour by Robert Gillmor)

Length160 mm
Closed wing83 mm
Weight27 gms

A Bird On! Sketch by Chris Mead
Copyright © 1996 by Jacobi Jayne & Company and Chris Mead


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