This nondescript lowland farmland bird is the largest of the buntings and is most usually seen perched on a wire or post. It is a stout, dumpy bird brown which flies off with a fluttering flight and with its legs characteristically 'dangling'. Its dramatic population decline in the UK makes it a Red List species.
Key ID Features:
A rather buff, lightly streaked bird with paler underparts, rather lark like plumage but stockier with heavier yellowish bill and lacking pale tail edges.
Pinkish legs are often left dangling during short flights.
Will perch openly to deliver is characteristic jangling song, sometimes likened to a bunch of keys rattling.
Often seen in mixed flocks with Yellowhammer.
Overview
Scientific name: Emberiza or Miliaria calandra
Family: Buntings (Emberizidae)
Where to see them:
Often seen perched prominently on a hedge, post or wire, singing its jangling song. In the summer corn buntings prefer open farmland and in winter they may be found in stubbles, root crops, weedy fields and cattle yards or stockyards.
Seen in UK:
All year round - forms flocks in the winter.
What they eat
Seeds and insects.
Text (c) RSPB, used with permission
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Location: Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire
Photographer: Tim Tapley
