- Emberiza calandra
Miliaria calandra
Identification
Corn Buntings are bigger and plumper than other buntings, streaky brown in all plumages, with a heavier and more distinctly notched bill. In flight they lack white outer tail feathers and frequently leave their legs dangling.
Distribution
Widespread and still fairly common over much of the Region but has declined dramatically in some areas of North-West Europe and Scandinavia and Britain in particular. Breeds in the British Is (scarce in the north and west and in Ireland), and from western France and Iberia east across Europe to Belarus, Ukraine and southern Russia to the Caspian, but absent from major mountain ranges. In the north breeds in Denmark but very rare in southern Sweden, more common in Poland. In the south breeds on the Balearics, Corsica and Sardinia, much of Italy and Sicily, southern Greece, Crete, Cyprus and Turkey, the Caucasus and northern Iraq. Also breeds in the Middle East south to northern Israel, in North Africa in Cyrenaica and from central Morocco to northern Tunisia and on the Canary Islands (although absent from Lanzarote and Fuerteventura).
Taxonomy
Miliaria calandra, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. It is the sole member of the genus Miliaria, although a few authorities place it in the large genus Emberiza.
Habitat
The Corn Bunting is a bird of open country with trees, such as farmland and weedy wasteland. It has declined greatly in northwest Europe due to intensive agricultural practices depriving it of its food supply of weed seeds and insects, the latter especially when feeding young.
Behaviour
Males defend territories in the breeding season and can be polygynous, with up to three females per breeding male. The population sex ratio is generally 1:1, which means some males remain unmated during a season. Males play only a small role in parental care; they are not involved in nest building or incubation, and only feed the chicks when they are over half grown.
