Fat bird of the barley

Hugely successful conservation efforts have brought fascinating corn buntings back to Courier Country, says Keith

Successful conservation efforts have brought corn buntings back to Courier Country.

With Storm Ciara reaching its peak, and the gusts so strong that my woolly hat had just been plucked from my head, this definitely wasn’t the best day to go searching for corn buntings by wind-scoured fields near Auchmithie.

After retrieving the gale-tumbled hat from a bankside, I hunkered down, water streaming from my eyes as the wind howled and whipped across the landscape. A couple of small birds swirled above me in the icy blast, before alighting by a hedge. Corn buntings!

I tried to examine them through my binoculars, but it was hard to discern their forms due to the ferocity of the wind. So, I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but the corn buntings had gone. It was a fleeting glimpse, but I was nonetheless delighted to have seen them, for they are one of our scarcer birds, with this part of Angus, north of Arbroath, being a stronghold.

At first glance, corn buntings are rather undistinguished birds – brown, dumpy, and truth be told, nondescript. But underdogs often have a mysterious appeal; holding little secrets just waiting to be revealed. Such is the case with the corn bunting, for these birds are actually highly-sexed livewires, with the promiscuous males often mating with several females.

A boring bird? Absolutely not. Corn buntings occur on farmland, with their stout, plump appearance earning them the nicknames “corn dumpling” and “fat bird of the barley”.

They are wonderful birds to watch in late spring and summer, when their jingling calls breeze through the air.

But in recent decades, corn buntings have undergone a near cataclysmic decline, becoming lost from many of their former haunts and hanging on perilously in others.

The combination of a preference for nesting in growing crops, a late breeding season (where birds are vulnerable to early silage cutting), and a diet centred on grains has made them vulnerable to modern agricultural practices.

But the tide is turning, thanks to the commitment of local farmers, estates and other landowners in several parts of Scotland, including Angus and Fife, under a project spearheaded by RSPB Scotland, with support from others.

In Angus, corn bunting numbers increased by more than 26% between 2016 and 2017, and their range had expanded towards Montrose. In Fife, numbers increased by 36% across 13 farms that were surveyed in 2018 and 2019. Fife numbers are now double that of their lowest point in 2001.

It has all been about farmers working with conservationists to provide the “big three” – ensuring safe nesting sites late in the season, providing suitable conditions to enhance availability of insects to feed chicks, and the provision of seed food, especially during winter.

By providing the right conditions for corn buntings, a host of other wildlife prospers; when the fat bird of the barley sings, then so does all of nature with it.

Corn buntings were once a common sight on farmland but they have suffered a huge drop in numbers over recent decades.