The Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra) is Europe's largest bunting, a heavily built, plain greyish-brown bird with dense dark streaking across the upperparts and breast and a notably large, robust bill built for cracking seeds. It lacks the bright yellow tones of the yellowhammer or ortolan bunting, and the sexes look alike; in flight, birds often dangle their legs, a distinctive and slightly ungainly habit. Measuring 16-19 cm with a wingspan of 26-32 cm, it is a bulky, unglamorous bird best identified by its bill and streaked, uniform plumage.
The male's song, an accelerating metallic "sirr-sirr-sirrrrr" often likened to a jangling bunch of keys, is delivered from an exposed perch, a fence post, hedge top or wire, and carries clearly across open farmland from May to July. In Sweden the Corn Bunting has suffered a dramatic decline linked to intensified agriculture, reduced grazing and the loss of structural variety in farmland, and it now survives almost exclusively in southern Skåne and on Öland, with only 200-500 pairs remaining, enough to see it classed as Endangered nationally. It is a year-round resident, favouring open farmland with bushes, hedges and unfertilised field margins, and avoiding uniform cereal fields without any bushy cover; in winter it moves to seed-rich disturbed ground and reedbeds. The diet is mainly grass and herb seeds taken from the ground, supplemented with insects fed to the young. The nest is built low in dense grass or a low bush, holding 3-5 eggs incubated for around 12-13 days; males are polygynous and may mate with several females in a single season.
Read about this species in Swedish →