Cirl Bunting

The Cirl Bunting is a member of the bunting family and is similar to a small Yellowhammer. The male has a bright yellow head with a black crown, eyestripe and throat, a greenish breast band across its otherwise yellow underparts and a heavily streaked brown back. The female is much more like a Yellowhammer but has a streaked grey-brown rump and chestnut shoulders.

The Cirl Bunting breeds across southern Europe, on the Mediterranean islands and in north Africa. It is a resident of these warmer areas and does not migrate in winter. It is common in all sorts of open areas with some scrub or trees including farmland. It can tolerate a certain degree of urbanisation and can be found in green spaces in some towns and cities.

Changes in agricultural practice have affected the Cirl Bunting very adversely at the northern fringes of its range and in England, where it once occurred over much of the south of the country, it is now restricted to south Devon and Cornwall.

In the summer the Cirl Bunting’s natural food consists of invertebrates whilst in the winter it feeds on small seeds from over-wintered stubbles, fallow land, set-aside and the over-winter feeding of stock with grain or hay. It tends to feed in flocks during the winter.

Date: 12th May 2015

Location: Mount Belles foothills, Ano Poroia, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece