Scientific name: Emberiza cirlus Linnaeus, 1766
Bird group: Buntings
Field characters. 16.5 cm. Male with yellow on belly, supercilium and ear-coverts. Black eye-stripe and throat, connected with each other by black line around ear-coverts. Upperparts and upper breast chestnut, mantle with dark streaks. Female paler, without black-and-yellow of male, mainly brown with streaks; resembles female Yellowhammer, but rump pale olive (not chestnut as in Yellowhammer), head more clearly marked, and less yellow on more diffusely marked underparts. Both sexes have white in outer tail feathers. Juvenile like female, but with less yellow and chestnut. Outside breeding season in small flocks. Generally shy.
Voice. call 'tzee', 'tic'. Song rattling, resembling Yellowhammer or Lesser Whitethroat.
Distribution. Common, summer visitor in northern part of region but resident further south.
Habitat. Often in mountainous areas in half-open country with scattered trees, orchards, edges of woodland, etc.
Food. Mainly seeds, but also insects, taken on ground and higher in vegetation.