Corn Bunting

• GeneralIt sings from posts and wires, a metallic sound like a bunch of keys.
• Its song, which it repeats more than a thousand times a day, has been likened to the jangling of a bunch of keys.
• The small tooth on its upper mandible has given it popular Spanish names such as dentón, londra de muela or pájaro del diente.
• It is easy to identify in flight because it flies with its legs dangling, which is unusual among passerines.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (bird)

Habitat & environment

Cereal fields, waste ground and cereal steppe

Birth weight

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Size at birth

Altricial: born blind, naked or with sparse down and entirely dependent

Sexual maturity

12 months

Gestation / incubation

12-14 days, by the female alone; the male only helps feed the chicks in the final stage

Litter / clutch size

4-6 white or bluish eggs with irregular streaks and speckles, with two or even three clutches a season. The chicks leave the nest at 7-10 days, before they can fly

Sources consulted: SEO/BirdLife (ficha y III Atlas de las aves en época de reproducción en España); IUCN Red List; Asturnatura; Piculo Mateo 2020, Enciclopedia Virtual de los Vertebrados Españoles (MNCN-CSIC); Piculo 2022, III Atlas; Donald et al. 2001; Brambilla, Guidali y Negri 2009, Ornis Fennica 86

Best time: All year round, though it sings mainly between April and June from posts, wires and high branches