Corn bunting

    Emberiza calandra

Castilian: Triguero

Catalan: Cruixidell

Gallego: Trigueirón

Euskera: Gari-berdantza

CLASIFICACIÓN:

Orden: Passeriformes

Family: Emberizidae

Migratory status: Permanent resident

CONSERVATION STATUS:

This species does not belong to any protection category.

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THREATS

It is affected by the activities related to agricultural intensification: insecticide abuse reduces its food supply, the lack of fallow land reduces its feeding areas, etc.

Length / size: 17-18 cm / 26-30 cm

Identification: Considerably large bird with a large and strong bill that is adapted to eating seeds. Its plumage is uniformly striped, with a scale of shades of brown on its back and greyish on its belly. It has a characteristic light-coloured moustache.

Song: It is a very singsong bird that constantly repeats its characteristic trill, "beet beet beet rreeeet".

Diet: It feeds on grain seeds that are both cultivated and wild. During mating season, it incorporates invertebrates into its diet.

Reproduction: The breeding period begins in May with the installation of the nest on the ground, camouflaged by a bush. The female uses dry grass and branches when building it and it also responsible for incubation. The male only collaborates in the final stage, which is feeding the chicks.

HABITAT

It is distributed throughout all kinds of open areas, preferrably farmland at low or medium altitude. It is also found in grasslands and pasturelands.

DISTRIBUTION

In Spain: Widely distributed throughout the peninsula and the archipelagos, but fragmented in the northern peninsular region from Galicia to the Pyrenees.

In Castile and León: Very abundant in low, dry farming regions in the central area of the community. The highest densities are located in Zamora, Salamanca and Valladolid.

Movements and migrations: It is a sedentary species in the peninsula that migrates locally. In winter specimens usually form groups and spend the night in reedbeds.

POPULATION

In Spain: There is an estimated population of 1.4 to 4.3 million breeding pairs.

In Castile and León: