Yellowhammer

• The pattern of fine, tangled lines on its eggs earned it the old English names of "scribble lark" and "writing lark", and is the origin of the Spanish name for the whole genus.
• Its song has a rhythm that the English remember as "a little bit of bread and no cheese".
• It hybridises with the pine bunting (Emberiza leucocephalos), its closest relative, where the two overlap.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat and environment

Atlantic countryside where hedgerows, meadows, copses and scrub alternate. In Spain it is confined to a northern belt of Eurosiberian climate, from Galicia to Catalonia, from 500 m up to 2,000 m in the Pyrenees

Size at birth

The chicks hatch altricial and covered in down

Sexual maturity

12 months

Gestation / incubation

12-14 days, by the female. The chicks fledge 11 to 13 days later

Litter / clutch size

3-5 eggs with a very distinctive fine network of dark lines, in a cup-shaped nest hidden on or near the ground. Two or three clutches a year from April on

Sources consulted: SEO/BirdLife (ficha y III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España); IUCN Red List; Asturnatura; Martínez-Padilla 2022, III Atlas; Antón-Tello 2022, Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles (MNCN-CSIC); Lista Roja Europea de Aves 2021; Libro Rojo de las Aves de España 2021; Gainzarain 2012

Best time: From April to August in the northern strip; in winter it spreads south and to lower ground