Corn Bunting

About the Corn Bunting

The corn bunting (Emberiza calandra) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. This is a large bunting with heavily streaked buff-brown plumage. The sexes are similar but the male is slightly larger than the female. Its range extends from Western Europe and North Africa across to northwestern China.

The corn bunting was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and retains its original binomial name of Emberiza calandra. The type locality is Sweden. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific calandra is from Ancient Greek kalandros, the calandra lark. The corn bunting has sometimes been placed in its own monotypic genus Miliaria.

Two subspecies are recognised: E. c. calandra Linnaeus, 1758 – northwest Africa, Canary Islands and Europe to Turkey, the Caucasus and north Iran E. c. buturlini Johansen, HE, 1907 – Middle East to northwest China This is an unusual bunting because the plumages of the sexes are similar in appearance, though the male is approximately... Wikipedia →