Yellowhammer

How to identify

Field marks

1. Male has a bright yellow head
2. Back brown with heavy streaks
3. Rump reddish-brown
4. Outer tail feathers white

Male, female and young

Female less bright, with more streaks on crown, breast and flanks; juvenile much duller, with less yellow and often a paler rump.

Voice

Song is a series of short notes increasing in volume, followed by one or two long notes, often rendered as “A little bit of bread and no cheese”.

Similar species

Pine Bunting

Females and juveniles can be confused with Pine Bunting; Yellowhammer always has a yellow tinge to its plumage, a paler reddish-brown rump and more uniform upperparts.

Where and when it's recorded

Yellowhammer has been recorded at 966 of the 8,171 birding hotspots we track, in 61 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Canons FarmUnited Kingdom1,563 records
2. Eschefelder TeicheGermany1,342 records
3. Eyebrook ReservoirUnited Kingdom1,333 records

Countries and regions with the most records

United KingdomCzechiaGermanyNew ZealandPolandSwedenNorwaySwitzerland

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a passerine bird in the bunting family that is native to Eurasia and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. Most European birds remain in the breeding range year-round, but the eastern subspecies is partially migratory, with much of the population wintering further south. Other plumages are duller versions of the same pattern.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

Questions