Reed Bunting Identification
Its scientific name is 'Emberiza schoeniclus', from the family Emberizidae (order Passeriformes)
What I look like
The Reed Bunting is about the size of a sparrow.
It has a small conical beak typical of seed-eaters.
Its plumage is brown, white, and buff with dark streaks.
The male in breeding plumage has a black head and throat with a broad white collar and a small white mustache.
The male in non-breeding plumage is paler, more gray-brown with a slight eyebrow, a thinner collar, and a grayish throat speckled with black.
The female resembles the male in non-breeding plumage, but her throat is beige framed with black and she has a gray collar.
The juvenile is lighter with a pale eyebrow.
My songs, my calls
The Reed Bunting has a sharp, trailing contact call, somewhat descending, "tsîeh".
Its song is a simple verse, brief, calm, with a few rolled sounds. The fine sounds are "spelled out" and sometimes end with a brief trill "sripp sripp sria sri sri sriiii".
Its song may seem different, as the chosen verses vary. Each singer has its own song even if the sounds are similar.
How I behave
The Reed Bunting is discreet and easily hides in the vegetation with a clumsy flight.
In the breeding season, the male is often seen singing, perched in reeds, shrubs, or willows.
Outside the breeding season, it can be very gregarious. Especially gathering in reed beds to form roosts.
Its flight is undulating, alternating rapid wing beats and closed-wing phases.
Its short wings allow it to move easily through marshes.
How I reproduce
The Reed Bunting builds its nest in various plants, in a clump or at the base of a bush.
The nest is made by the female and forms a cup of stems, dry leaves, twigs, and moss. She lines it with fine vegetation, hair, and moss.
In Western Europe, the breeding season from April to August allows for 2 to 3 broods of 4 to 5 eggs.
In Siberia, it lasts from June to July and allows for only one brood.
What I eat
The Reed Bunting is granivorous in the bad season. It eats seeds fallen to the ground.
It is insectivorous in the good season.
Where to find me
The Reed Bunting lives in reed beds, rushes, and brushwood of wet areas.
It is migratory in the north and east of Europe and winters in southern Europe.
It is sedentary in Western Europe and in temperate areas in the center of Europe, between the winter and summer quarters of migrants.
It can live about eleven years.