Yellowhammer

The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a member of the bunting family that has red conservation status in the United Kingdom due to its declining numbers caused mainly by modern farming methods that have led to loss of habitat.

Distribution and habitat

The yellowhammer is found throughout Europe. In the United Kingdom it is less commonly seen the further north and west one goes and it is also rarer in upland areas.

The yellowhammer is a bird of the open countryside where bushes and hedges are abundant. It can also be seen in areas where young conifers are growing and on hillsides covered in bracken.

Appearance

The yellowhammer is a slim bird that measures 16-17 centimetres in length (6.5 inches). It has longish wings and a cleft in the tail. The upperparts are streaky chestnut brown in colour with plain chestnut on the rump. In summer, male yellowhammers are plain yellow on the head and underparts, although the winter plumage has a smaller area of yellow and a greater area of chestnut brown. 

Female yellowhammers have much less yellow colouring than the males, with more streaking on the underside and a paler shade of yellow on the head and upper chest. The tail feathers are dark brown with white edges and white underneath.

Behaviour

The yellowhammer’s flight is sometimes undulating and sometimes more direct. 

It spends much of its time on the ground, hopping rather than walking. 

Yellowhammers can also be seen perching in full view on bushes and hedges, singing and with tails flicking. They are more gregarious in winter than summer, sometimes in the company of other buntings and finches, when they may visit towns and city suburbs to take advantage of bird-table food.

The yellowhammer’s song is a series of wheezy high notes with a final longer one, characterised by the phrase “a little bit of bread and no cheese”. It also has some sharper and hoarser calls. A recording of the call, together with lots more information, is available on the website of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds).

Food for yellowhammers consists mainly of seeds and berries, but about 30% of the diet is insects, spiders and worms.  

Breeding

The male’s courtship display consists of hopping round the female with drooped wings and rump feathers ruffled up, sometimes picking up a piece of twig or similar in its beak and prancing around with it.

The nest is built on or close to the ground in hedges or brambles or against grassy banks. It is made from plant stems, stalks and roots and generally lined with horsehair, even if the birds have to fly some distance to where horses are grazed or ridden. 

The clutch is of three to five eggs that are incubated mainly by the female yellowhammer. The young birds hatch after about 13 days and take as long again to leave the nest, continuing to be fed by their parents for another 10 days or so after that. After they have fledged, the young birds gather in small groups to visit nearby fields. A second brood is usual and a third is possible in good seasons.

© John Welford