Yellowhammer or Cirl Cornwall (1 Viewer)

[Tav94]

Is this a yellowhammer i see it has a ring on the leg.

 

[Peewit]

Looks like a Yellow Hammer to me.

I am going by the yellow colouring, and the dark stripes around its cheek and it's head.

 

[bitterntwisted]

Looks like a Yellow Hammer to me. I am going by the yellow colouring, and the dark stripes around its cheek and it's head.

Cirl Buntings also have all these features and can be very difficult to separate - easiest diagnostic ID features are the rump colour and the call - other ID criteria can be subtle especially in immature and female birds.

That said, I do think this is a Yellowhammer, Tav, although I'd always try to see the rump as I find buntings difficult. The ring looks like a metal BTO ring and not the colour rings being used by the re-introduction project which are pictured here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/ourwork/farming/working/projects/cirlbuntings/reintroduction.asp

Graham

 

[Tav94]

Thanks for the info i was hoping it my have been one of the birds from the re-introduction project.

 

[Peewit]

Cirl Buntings also have all these features and can be very difficult to separate - easiest diagnostic ID features are the rump colour and the call - other ID criteria can be subtle especially in immature and female birds.
Graham

Thanks for the info i was hoping it my have been one of the birds from the re-introduction project.

Hi Graham

I could see that being the case here and the two birds are difficult to separate as they look very similar. They have different habits altogether. So what you say is perfectly true, and yes, as this bird has been ringed so that makes it more interesting too.
Thank you for the link as it is very informative too. Lots to learn here. :-O

Tav: Maybe another way of approaching it: from the Oxford Book of Birds:-

The Cirl Bunting is slightly smaller than the Yellow Hammer. The Cirl Bunting also has a dark rump (as Graham has mentioned)
The Cirl's call is more of a rattle, than the Yellowhammer call, which is a lot more pronounced as we know already (as Graham has mentioned)
From what I can see from my bird plates in The Oxford book the Cirl buntings head has much darker colouration, bordering on green on top of the head and on the chest area (Adult Male bird), a striped brown back and rump, and has very little yellow on the head area compared with the Yellow Hammer.
The (Adult female bird) looks very mottled between the green and the brown colouration. The colours are not uniform as in the male. There is a lot of stronger dark and light brown stripes, stripes in general along the wing outline and the rump on both male and female bird. :t:

What could be said here that the female Yellow Hammer and the female Cirl Bunting are hard to distinguish, they look the same with the colouration on all body parts
The difference is that the Cirl has a Grey Brown Rump. broader head stripes and darker crown

Hope this helps, and I am sure that there will lots more opinions on this.

Interesting information Tav

 

[Cristian Mihai]

Hard to say, but my vote is for Yellowhammer.

 

[Capercaillie71]

This is certainly a Yellowhammer. The amount of yellow on the head and breast indicates that it is a male. Female Yellowhammers/ Cirl Buntings are much drabber birds. A male Cirl Bunting would have a black throat, rather than the yellow one on this bird.

 

[JANJ]

Since the image shows a summer plumaged male (as mentioned by Capercaillie) there´s really no problems with the identification of this bird. However females and juveniles can be trickier.
In all plumages Yellowhammer has a chestnut nearly unstreaked rump - Cirl a grey-brown streaked rump. The chestnut lower scapular streak is often visible:

http://beauquenne.oiseaux.net/bruant.zizi.1.html#fiche

JanJ