Peatland wildlife

Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Description

Although their preferred habitat is marshy ground, reed buntings live in a variety of habitats, including bogs, fens, heathland, farmland hedgerows and gorse scrub.

Males in summer have a distinctive black head and throat and a white moustache-like stripe. They have a rich brown upper body, streaked with darker browns, with a pale chest and a grey rump. The white edge to the tail is conspicuous in flight. The female lacks the black head and grey rump of the male but has the white moustache-like stripe and pale throat and chest. Juveniles are similar to the female but paler.

Behaviour

The male is often seen in the spring delivering his chirruping song from the top of a tall tree or reed stem. The constant flicking of the wings and tail is characteristic of the male as he flits from branch to branch. Like all buntings, the flight is undulating.

Breeding

Reed buntings build their cup-shaped nests on or close to the ground using grasses, reeds and moss and line them with fine grass and hair. The female lays four or five pale olive-brown mottled eggs between April and May, incubating them for two weeks. Both parents tend the chicks, which fledge after about two weeks. Reed buntings can sometimes have two or three broods in a year.

Status

Local

In Northern Ireland the Wildlife Order states that it is an offence to kill, injure, capture or keep (alive or dead) any wild bird, including the reed bunting.

It is also an offence to destroy, damage or take the nest of any wild bird or to sell or advertise for sale the eggs of any wild bird.

The reed bunting is a Northern Ireland Priority Species for conservation because of the recent decline in it's population and distribution.