Cirl Bunting
Emberiza cirlus
Male distinctive, with striking head and breast pattern, especially blackish throat. Female drab and streaky, told from Yellowhammer by finer dark streaking, more boldly striped head, and grayish rump (not bright rusty). White outer tail feathers often show in flight. Inhabits sunny heathland, woodland edge, and farmland with hedges. Male sings from a prominent perch, such as bush, or wires; song is an unremarkable rattling trill. Call includes a bright, metallic “tsiu” and a longer, high-pitched “tseeu.” Native to Eurasia and North Africa, introduced to New Zealand.
Identification
The cirl bunting is like a small yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella), and is around 15.5 cm (6.1 in) in length with a wing-span 22–25.5 cm (8.7–10.0 in). It has a thick seed-eater's bill. The male has a bright yellow head, with a black crown, eyestripe and throat, and a greenish breast band across its otherwise yellow underparts, and a heavily streaked brown back. The female is much more like the yellowhammer, but has a streaked grey-brown rump and chestnut shoulders.<p>The monotonous song of the cock is rattling trill, like Arctic warbler or the terminal rattle of lesser whitethroat.
Taxonomy
The cirl bunting was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current binomial name Emberiza cirlus. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific cirlus is from a local Italian name cirlo, for a type of bunting, from zirlare, "to chirp". The English cirl is derived from cirlus, "probably from zirlare, to whistle as a thrush". The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Emberiza cirlus
- Authority
- Linnaeus, 1766
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Emberizidae
- Genus
- Emberiza
Range and habitat
The ideal farmland habitat is a mixture of grass and arable fields, divided by thick hedgerows with pockets of dense scrub. They can tolerate a certain degree of urbanisation, and are found in green spaces in towns and cities, even Rome.[citation needed]<p>They are sedentary in nature and will often travel only 250 metres (820 ft) from their nests to forage in summer, and up to 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in winter to find stubble.
- Breeding range
- PAL, AF : s temperate to subtropical w Palearctic scrubby woodlands: far s England, France, s Germany e through s Romania; in s to Iberian Pen. and coastal Morocco to Tunisia (nw, nc Africa), Mediterranean including Balearics, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, and coastal w, n Turkey
- Non-breeding range
- to nearby fields
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Cirl buntings first breed when they are one year of age. The nest is at low level, within dense cover such as that provided by thick hedgerows and scrub. The ideal scrub is said to be blackthorn, hawthorn, bramble and gorse. The breeding season runs from April until mid-September, usually having two broods but occasionally three. Two to five eggs are laid, which show the hair-like markings characteristic of buntings. They are incubated only by the female and hatch 12–13 days after the last egg is laid. The young are cared for and fed by both parents. They nestlings fledge after 11–13 days but continue to be fed by their parents for a further two or three weeks.<p>In the summer their natural food consists of invertebrates for example grasshoppers and crickets to feed their chicks. In the winter they feed on small seeds from over-wintered stubbles, fallow land, set-aside, and the over-winter feeding of stock with grain or hay. They tend to feed in flocks during the winter.
Conservation
- Population trend
- rising
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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Collared Warbling Finch
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Handsome finch-like bird found in dry habitats of western Peru and western Ecuador. Male has a black breast and face mask that stand out against his white throat, eyebrow, and belly. Similar to Black-capped Sparrow, but breast band is much thicker, eyebrow extends almost to bill, and tail shows some white. Young males may have patches of brown in their plumage. Female is quite different; she is mostly brown with a lot of streaking. Her thick, pale eyebrow and orange bill are good identification features.
Peruvian Warbling-Antbird
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Small streaked antbird. Black-and-white streaked head and underparts with a bold black eyeline and crown, brown wings and tail, and orange-red wash on the sides. Found in dense understory around forest edges and secondary growth; where it overlaps with Yellow-breasted Warbling-Antbird, largely restricted to the understory of mature rainforest, especially around tree fall gaps and along streams and ravines in upland areas. Compared to the similar Yellow-breasted Warbling-Antbird, usually has orange-red wash restricted to its sides (Yellow-breasted can be orangey but usually has extensive color on the throat and breast), and is found in mature forest habitats (not bamboo or riverside secondary growth). Song an accelerating, descending series of whistles that get rougher in tone, very similar to that of Yellow-breasted Warbling-Antbird.
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