18 August 2009

While carrying out his final visit of the 2009 Cirl Bunting survey in the Churston area, Mike Langman came across this presumed hybrid male Cirl Bunting x Yellowhammer.

Mike writes: "During the survey I came across this unpaired singing male bird which is presumably a hybrid, just 30 metres outside my survey square. I returned the following day with my camera and managed to get a few shots.

The bird was singing and calling as a Cirl Bunting. Most distinctively, the bird's head was mostly yellow like a Yellowhammer's but had a black throat patch and black lores as in Cirl Bunting. The underparts were rich yellow, particularly the under tail coverts (closer to Yellowhammer), and the dark flank streaks were stronger than the average Cirl Bunting. The breast lacked the upper olive breast band found in Cirl Bunting and had a stronger chestnut band usually found in Yellowhammer.

Most hybrid birds can only be recorded as 'presumed' as the observer rarely knows the parentage of the bird they have seen. Just occasionally the unusual plumage might be a genetic abnormality which resembles features of another species.

Perhaps it is unsurprising this male was unpaired – the females of the pure species protecting the gene pool!"

Presumed Cirl Bunting x Yellowhammer – near Churston – © Mike Langman – 17 August 2009