Yellowhammer Bird

Facts about Yellowhammer Bird. "Scientific name for Yellowhammer Bird Emberiza citrinella". The Yellowhammer Bird is a passerine bird that belongs to the genus Emberiza of the Emberizidae family. These birds hail from Eurasia and they are largely found in open areas with some trees or scrubs, and structures small groups during winter. The Yellowhammer Bird has a feature song with the rhythm "A little bit of bread and no cheese". The song is extremely close to that of its closest relation, the pine bunting, with which the Yellowhammer Bird interbreeds. This eye-catching yellow bird has stimulated poems by John Clare, an English poet, and Robbie Burns, a Scottish lyricist and poet. The characteristic song of the Yellowhammer Bird has influenced works by Messiaen, a French musician, ornithologist and organist, and Beethoven, a German pianist and musician.

Features of Yellowhammer Bird

The Yellowhammer Bird is a big bunting, with the body length ranging from 6 5/16 inches to 6 1/2 inches (16 cm to 16.5 cm), with a wingspan between 9 1/8 inches and 11 5/8 inches (23 cm and 29.5 cm) and with the body mass that ranges from 0.71 oz to 1.29 oz (20 grams to 36.5 grams).

Usually, the male Yellowhammer Bird has a bright yellow color head, heavily striped brown color back, yellow underparts, rufous rump, and white color external tail feathers. The female Yellowhammer Bird is less intensely colored, and more striped on the breast, crown, and flanks. Both genders are less powerfully marked exterior the breeding season, when the dark trimmings on fresh feathers difficult to understand the yellow plumage. The juvenile bird is less yellow and much duller than the grown-up bird, and habitually contains a paler rump.

There is a sexual dimorphism between the genders in the Yellowhammer Birds. Usually, the male Yellowhammer Bird is somewhat darker and smaller than the female ones. Furthermore, they have more streaking on their back, a greenish shade of the yellow of the skull and more chestnut on the sides. It is not generally possible to differentiate female bird of the three subspecies of the Yellowhammer Bird using the plumage features.

Diet of Yellowhammer Bird

The Yellowhammer Bird chiefly forages on the ground and it mostly feed on seeds and plants, such as common nettle, common knotgrass, docks, fat hen, yarrow and chickweed. These birds also feed on grasses, particularly cereals. During the winter and autumn seasons, the Yellowhammer Birds, mainly feed on grains.

Breeding of Yellowhammer Bird

Normally, breeding in the Yellowhammer Bird varieties commences during early May. These birds are monogamous and they breed when they attain the age of one year after their birth. The male birds set up territories along woodland fringes or hedges and sing from a bush or tree, habitually enduring well into July or August. The male bird displays to the female Yellowhammer Bird by lifting his wings and sprinting towards her. The nest of the Yellowhammer Birds is usually constructed by the female bird on or close to the ground, and is normally well concealed in tussocks, low in a bush or against a bank. Their nest is built from close plant material, such as dry grass, leaves, and stalks, and creased with superior grasses and occasionally animal hair.

Usually, the clutch is three to five white color eggs, normally patterned with a system of fine dark stripes. The average size of the eggs is 0.83 x 0.63 inches (21 x 16 mm), and they weigh 0.10 Oz (2.9 g), of which 6 percent is covered. The female bird protects its eggs for 12 to 14 days to hatch. Both male and female Yellowhammer birds nourish the baby bird in the nest and two or three clutches are raised every year.

The average lifespan of the Yellowhammer Bird is 3 years.