Yellowhammer

"Emberiza citrinella -New Zealand" by Alan Vernon - originally posted to Flickr as Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) in New Zealand, North Island. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Commons

A rather grey and occasionally drizzly walk today. The wildlife highlights were the prodigious numbers of spindle trees in the hedgerows (almost as many as the hawthorns) and the flock of yellowhammers, Umberiza citronella.
There were around twenty birds with half as many Chaffinch and a pair of Bullfinch. Certainly the largest flock I've seen to date. The intensity of the yellow male plumage is shocking when you first see it, making you think that this must be an escaped exotic such as a Canary.
They have a distinctive song which is usually rendered in the books as "a little bit of bread and chee-eese."
 

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