Y is for Yellowhammer

YELLOWHAMMER (EMBERIZA CITRINELLA)

This sunflower yellow bunting compliments a balmy summer’s evening in a British field, when the males belt their song from high perches.  For many listeners, their reedy song is reminiscent of past country life.

Yellowhammers Emberiza citrinella get their name from the male’s bright plumage, with a yellow head and breast and streaky chestnut wings and body. As usual, the female is a bit plainer, but there is still a sunny glow within her streaky brown camouflage. As for the ‘hammer’, this is believed to originate from their Anglo-Saxon name “Amor”, and following old English “Amer” with the yellow a later descriptive addition ^1,2.

The yellowhammer’s reedy, breathless song is famous for the mnemonic  “ a-little-bit-of-bread-and-no cheese”, made public through Enid Blyton’s children’s books³.  Though the song falls a little short, the phrase captures the tumbling notes and finishing wheeze. The male sits proudly on the tallest perch he can find to broadcast his ownership of his territory, repeating his song long into the summer.


Yellowhammers are birds of field and pasture, namely where there are hedgerows for sheltering, singing and nesting. Their summer song provides a traditional soundtrack for the harvest season. Though characterising the warmer months, they are surprisingly winter hardy for a small bird⁴, when they feed in flocks taking advantage of spilt grain and wild plant seeds. Yellowhammers are truly a farmland bird, and their small range keeps them faithful to the fields⁵.

But they are of course found in wilder places, in rough grassland, heaths and scrub. They are more associated with these habitats in the West, exemplified by Their Welsh name is Melyn yr Eithin-“Yellow bird of the gorse”². They may also roost in reedbeds alongside their cousin the reed bunting E. schoeniclus and are occasional visitors to rural garden bird tables in winter when food is scarce⁵.

The yellowhammer’s main diet is seeds, including cereals, though they are not a serious pest. They exploit human offerings of grain from gamebird and livestock feeding stations and historically, leftovers from the harvest which may provide a winter lifeline.  They also eat berries and around a third of their diet is large, juicy insects such as grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars, which the adults also rely on to feed their chicks⁵.

Courtship is a complex game for male yellowhammers. Instead of strutting his stuff like many cock birds, he gives up his usual dominant position over females and starts to play cat and mouse with his chosen mate. He follows her and bounces around vying for attention, but with every annoyed retort by the female, makes a mock retreat before resuming his chase back and forth⁶.

Yellowhammers nest on or near the ground, often at the base of hedgerows, amongst bramble or other scrubby plants. The outer cup is woven from dry grass and the favoured lining is horse hair, meaning the couple sometimes travel far out of their territory to find a paddock or stables⁷*.

Their four beige eggs are painted with chocolate brown squiggles to break up their outline, earning one of their older names “Scribble lark”¹. Yellowhammers produce up to three broods a year³, the latest being most important for building numbers when winters are milder⁷.

Unfortunately, yellowhammers are not increasing . Though once widespread, they have followed the decline of other farmland birds.  Removal  and improper management of hedgerows, leaving short, sparse bushes that offer little cover, different timings and increased efficiency of harvesting and storage leaving little spilt grain in the winter and pesticides, herbicides and intensive pasture management have left fields bare of insects and weed seeds. Yellowhammers have sadly decreased by over 50% between 1970 and 2010 as farms become less hospitable⁵. There is also little of their natural habitat left to go back to, since much of our farmland was originally converted from grassland or heathland.

But it may not be all doom and gloom for this sunshine bird, since yellowhammers greatly benefit from agri-environment management schemes that encourage the maintenance of species-rich field margins, traditional hedgerow management, and sowing bird seed plots to provide winter food^{8, 9}. Trials show that even if these are adopted on scattered farms, they benefit yellowhammer populations in the wider landscape⁸.

Though we’ll never completely go back to past farming techniques, with beauty and charm on it’s side, the yellowhammer is a great candidate for farmland conservation. With a little help, it’s cheesy song could remain soundtrack of the British countryside.

*Before human agriculture, yellowhammers would have sought hair from wild horses Equus ferus which lived in Europe until the early 20^th century.

References

1-  Fransesca Greenoak. (1979) All the Birds of the Air. A. Brown and Sons.

2- Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey. (2005) Birds Britannica. London, Chatto and Windus
3- R.A. Robinson. (2005) BTO BirdFacts: profiles of birds occurring in Britain & Ireland: Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella   [Linnaeus, 1758]. (BTO Research Report 407). BTO, Thetford. Available from:  http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob18570.htm

4- Peter Holden and J.T.R. Sharrock. (1988) The RSPB Book of British Birds. London, Papermac.

5- Peter Holden and Tim Cleeves. (2010) RSPB Handbook of British Birds (Third Edition). London, A&C Black.

6-  Margaret Bastock. (1967) Courtship: An Ethological Study. Chicago, Aldine Publication Co. Available from: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BJd94aGwhCgC&pg=PA100&lpg=PA100&dq=yellowhammer+courtship&source=bl&ots=uf87vVDDjv&sig=81VE5P0Bo6AMmOmhP4ZIagDKbGI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=FqPFUsm6G4iShgfX7oCIDg&ved=0CDIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=yellowhammer%20courtship&f=false

7- John Welford. (2010) Facts about yellowhammers. Available from: http://www.critters360.com/index.php/facts-about-yellowhammers-8827/

8- RSPB. (2009) Farming: Advice for Farmers: Yellowhammer. Available from http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/farming/advice/details.aspx?id=204089

9-RSPB. (No date) Our work: Projects: Yellowhammer Recovery Project. Available from: http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/projects/details/220835-yellowhammer-recovery-project#achievements