“A little bit of bread but no cheese” is what a Yellowhammer does not say no matter how many bird books tell me otherwise. The phrase makes no sense, who eats bread on the assumption that cheese automatically comes with it? And so much so that they feel the need to add the stipulation that the bread they’ve ordered (I’m imagining a small yellow bird ordering food in a cafe here, a tiny bird sized cafe, possibly in a converted bird box…) come with no cheese. But the bird does have a really distinctive song, which sounds more like “If you go to the shops, remember me”. The key to the yellowhammer is the long drawn-out eeeee at the end of the phrase, hence the mnemonics to remember the song and who sang it. A declining bird, and one I hadn’t heard in my home county, until this week.
What: Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella Linnaeus, 1758
When: 1st June 2020 (and subsequently)
Where: Appleton, Cheshire, UK
Who saw it (or heard it in this case): Me
How was it recorded? I will put the record on eBird when I remember to do so!
Is it bigger than a blackbird? No, about the same size as a house sparrow or chaffinch.
What is it? A small mostly yellow bird in the bunting family (related to Reed and Corn Buntings). It’s head and breast, of the male that is, is bright yellow whilst the wings are a duller rufus-brown colour. The male also has a distinctive black mask consisting of three horizontal stripes across its face. The female looks like a washed out version of the male, with vertical dark stripes on the breast. They are non-migratory and occur in most areas, but rarer in the north of England (where I live), and part of Scotland than elsewhere in the UK. So it was great to come across my first ever one from my home county last week. They are a bird that is declining across the board unfortunately; they are a classic farmland species and like many others have suffered from loss of habitat and increases in insecticide use, and modernising of farming practices which decrease their food source.
A fact about that I did not know: It is a little vague about the ‘hammer’ part of the bird’s English name. One source I found suggests it is a corruption of the word ‘amber,’ maybe referring to the rufus colour of the bird’s wings? No doubt it’s a name whose meaning has been lost in the mists of time.
Is it charismatic in my opinion? Despite it’s song which is about cheese if you believe the books, i’m sure it is. I’ve not seen too many, but they always make me look for one when I hear the distinctive song, but i’m not sure what they do? Maybe I should really find out, but at the moment they don’t do much for me. Controversial!!!
A Species a Day 