In
one of my bird guides, the Corn bunting is described as “one of the larger and
certainly the most nondescript of the European buntings”. Compared to its jazzier
cousin, the yellowhammer, it is quite dull but I have a certain amount of
affection for this ‘fat bird of the barley’ as its sometimes known. Its unexciting looks hide a racy side to the Corn bunting; the males are polygamous, often having several mates and nests on the go simultaneously. It is one
of the earliest farmland birds to start singing and if you are out on top of
the West Wiltshire Downs this month you may hear its jangling song, sometimes
likened to a rattling bunch of keys, being sung from a fence post or solitary
hawthorn bush. It is a very distinctive sound, another reason why I like it –
you can’t mistake it for other bird calls! When disturbed they will fly off
from their post with their legs dangling – another telltale corn bunting trait.
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| Corn bunting on a song post (Copyright Wessex Wildlife) |
Corn
bunting are birds of open country favouring large fields where they nest on the
ground, most often in cereal crops or sometimes pasture but always away from
trees and tall hedgerows. Curiously for a bird that starts singing in January
to establish territories, they nest late, often having flightless chicks in the
nest in late July which can mean they fall prey to the combine harvester, particularly
if they nest in winter barley which is harvested earlier than other crops like
winter wheat. Grass fields cut for hay or silage present a similar problem.
With support from the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project, any farmers across the AONB are providing safe nesting areas for the birds by growing large blocks of unharvested cereals in open areas of the farm; these also deliver much needed seed food over the winter. Planting flowering plants like knapweed, red clover and lucerne increases insect numbers ensuring sufficient summer food for the chicks. We are extremely fortunate in Wiltshire to have good numbers of corn bunting; unfortunately they have declined considerably in other parts of theUK Scotland Chalke Valley
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| Corn bunting nest on the ground. Copyright Hugh Morrison |
With support from the South Wiltshire Farmland Bird Project, any farmers across the AONB are providing safe nesting areas for the birds by growing large blocks of unharvested cereals in open areas of the farm; these also deliver much needed seed food over the winter. Planting flowering plants like knapweed, red clover and lucerne increases insect numbers ensuring sufficient summer food for the chicks. We are extremely fortunate in Wiltshire to have good numbers of corn bunting; unfortunately they have declined considerably in other parts of the
