Ortolan Bunting

The Ortolan Bunting is a subtly elegant, warm-colored bunting that breeds across open, dry, sunny farmland in scattered pockets from Iberia to Scandinavia and eastward into Asia, wintering in sub-Saharan Africa. Its numbers have declined across much of western Europe in recent decades.

Appearance

Adults show a soft grey-green head and breast, a bright yellow throat and narrow eye-ring, and warm pinkish-buff underparts, with a streaked brown back and a pale pinkish bill. Females and immatures are duller and more streaked but retain the characteristic yellow throat and pale eye-ring.

Key Field Marks

• Grey-green head and breast contrasting with a bright yellow throat
• Pale, complete eye-ring
• Pinkish-buff belly and flanks
• Pale pinkish (not dark) conical bill
• Streaked brown back, chestnut-tinged rump

Similar Species

Cretzschmar's Bunting, found around the eastern Mediterranean, is very similar but has a blue-grey (not yellow) throat and a rustier orange breast wash. Yellowhammer has a much brighter overall yellow plumage without the grey head/breast contrast. The Ortolan's combination of grey head, yellow throat, and pink-buff underparts is distinctive with a good view.

Habitat

Ortolan Buntings favor warm, open, and often quite arid farmland — cereal fields, vineyards, orchards, and dry stony hillsides with scattered trees or bushes for song perches, typically in sunnier climates than most other European buntings.

Range and Migration

The species breeds in a patchy distribution from Iberia and France across central and northern Europe into Scandinavia, and eastward across much of temperate Asia. It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in the Sahel zone of sub-Saharan Africa, and populations in many parts of western and northern Europe have declined sharply or disappeared in recent decades.

Behavior

Ortolan Buntings are often fairly unobtrusive outside the breeding season, foraging on the ground in open fields, but singing males perch conspicuously on wires, low trees, or bushes within their territory.

Voice

The song is a simple, unhurried series of similar, slightly descending, fluty notes, often rendered as "tsi-tsi-tsi-tsi-tsu-tsu," quite distinct from the faster, rattling songs of some other buntings.

Nesting and Breeding

The nest is built on or near the ground, hidden among crops or low vegetation, a cup of grass and rootlets. The female lays 4-6 eggs with fine dark markings and incubates them for about 11-12 days.