THE CORN BUNTING

With streaky brown feathers and a buff chest, the Corn bunting, Emberiza calandra, is the largest of the buntings at 6-7in (16-18cm) in length. This stocky and rather dumpy-looking little bird is most likely to be found perched on wires and posts in summer and among stubble and weedy fields in winter: it is not migratory in the UK. It has a ‘key jangling’ call and a fluttering flight, with its legs distinctly dangling.

Its diet consists mainly of seeds, but during the breeding season, it includes a high percentage of small insects and other invertebrates, such as spiders.

Partly due to changes in land management, the Corn bunting is classified as Red under the Birds of Conservation Concern 4: The Red List for Birds (2015) and is a Priority Species under the

UK Post-2010 Biodiversity Framework. There are now 11,000 breeding territories left in the UK, largely in the lowlands of England and Scotland. To put that number into context, there are approximately 5,300,000 mating sparrow pairs.

There is little difference in the plumage between males and females, although the male Corn bunting is significantly larger. He may mate with up to 18 different females during the May to June breeding season. He leaves each one to nest among rough grass or arable crops to look after the clutch of four to five white eggs with dark markings, maybe returning when the young have hatched 12-14 days later to assist her in the feeding of insects and seeds. The youngsters leave the nest from as young as nine days old; usually well before they can fly.