Yellowhammer
Emberiza citrinella
A seed-eating bunting with a chestnut rump. Confirmed in Georgia as a winter visitor; breeding in Georgia is not accepted on the 2024 national bird checklist.
Overview
What is Yellowhammer
The yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) is a sparrow-sized Old World bunting (family Emberizidae). The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia treats it as a winter visitor: a non-breeder present in late autumn, winter, and early spring. Seasonality is classed as high-quality (code A), with occurrence supported by historical records and photographs. It is not listed as a breeding bird for Georgia on that checklist. International handbooks describe an isolated Caucasus and eastern Black Sea population of the eastern subspecies E. c. erythrogenys; that regional breeding picture is not the same as a confirmed Georgian breeding status. Adults are about 16–16.5 cm long. IUCN lists the species as Least Concern. It is harmless to people.
Last updated
Gallery
Yellowhammer in photos
Photo: ზაური ხაჩიძე
Photo: Charles J. Sharp
Oxfordshire ·
Photo: Andreas Trepte
Photo: Горбунова М.С.
Photo: Alexis Lours
Photo: Gail Hampshire
Identification
How to identify Yellowhammer
A sparrow-sized bunting with a chestnut rump and, in males, a yellow head. In Georgia it is a winter bird, not a confirmed breeder on the 2024 checklist.
- 01
Length is about 16–16.5 cm; wingspan about 23–29.5 cm; mass about 20–36 g at species level. The bill is conical, as in other seed-eating buntings. White outer tail feathers show in flight. The rump is chestnut — the most reliable colour mark when the head is dull.
- 02
Adult males have a bright yellow head and underparts, a streaked brown back, and a chestnut rump. Females and young birds are browner and more streaked, often with a yellowish wash on the face rather than a solid yellow head. Fresh autumn plumage can hide yellow under brown feather edges until the tips wear.
- 03
Rock bunting (Emberiza cia) is a year-round resident in Georgia; it has a grey head with black stripes and rufous underparts, not a yellow head. Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra) is a larger, streaky brown bird without yellow or a chestnut rump. Pine bunting (Emberiza leucocephalos) is a scarce winter or casual visitor; males have a white crown and chestnut face, not a yellow head. Cirl bunting (Emberiza cirlus) is similar in size but its status in Georgia is not defined on the 2024 checklist; the male has a dark-striped yellow face and an olive-grey rump, not chestnut. This atlas does not yet have separate pages for those buntings.
- 04
It is not a threat to people. Leave it alone. A yellow garden bird in summer is more likely something else if you are using the 2024 Georgian status: this species is listed there as a winter visitor.
Biology
Habitat, diet, behavior, and conservation
Habitat and range
In Georgia look for it in the cold months, not as a summer nesting bird. This page does not map administrative regions: the 2024 checklist confirms the country-level winter status but does not publish a municipality-by-municipality range. Do not assume it occurs evenly across Georgia. Species-level winter habitat is open country with food on the ground — stubble, weedy field margins, farmland, pasture, orchards, and the edges of scrub or woodland. Dense closed forest is not typical. Elevation for Georgia has not been published separately here; elsewhere in the south of the range, related open habitats can reach about 2,000 m. The atlas map is empty until named Georgian localities are compiled from sources that actually list them.
Diet
There is no separate Georgian diet study on this page. Across the range, adults take mainly seeds of grasses, cereals, and farmland weeds; they forage on the ground, often in small flocks in winter, sometimes with other buntings or finches. In the breeding season elsewhere they take invertebrates and feed chicks on insects and spiders. For a winter bird in Georgia the realistic picture is seed-feeding on farmland and open ground, not a measured local menu.
Behavior
It is active by day. In winter it often feeds in loose flocks and can be fairly confiding along field edges, but it should not be handled. The diagnostic field mark in all plumages is a warm chestnut rump, contrasting with a streaked brown back; white outer tail feathers flash in flight. The male has a bright yellow head and underparts, with some dark streaking on the crown and cheeks. Females and immatures are duller and more streaked, usually with a yellowish wash on the face. The song — a run of short notes ending in a drawn-out wheeze, often remembered in English as “a little bit of bread and no cheese” — belongs to the breeding season and is not the expected cue for a winter visitor in Georgia. Winter birds still give short, sharp contact calls such as “tsick”. Nesting biology (clutches of about 3–5 eggs elsewhere) is species-level data from the breeding range; the 2024 Georgian checklist does not treat this species as a breeder in Georgia.
Conservation
BirdLife International assesses Emberiza citrinella as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (2024). The range is huge; western European farmland populations have declined with agricultural intensification, but the global decline is not fast enough for a higher threat category. It is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List (Government Resolution No. 190). The 2024 Georgian bird checklist assigns national Red List category LC. Georgia-specific population trend and local threats have not been quantified on this page. In the EU the species is listed on Annex II of the Birds Directive (code A376); that directive does not apply in Georgia. Do not catch or keep wild birds.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Short answers to the most important questions about Yellowhammer.
Yes. The 2024 annotated checklist of the birds of Georgia lists it as a confirmed winter visitor (non-breeder in late autumn, winter, and early spring). It is not listed there as a breeding bird.
In the cold months, in open country with seeds on the ground — farmland, stubble, weedy margins, and similar edges. This page has no named municipality list and does not colour the regional map. Presence is confirmed at country level, not mapped region by region here.
Chestnut rump, streaked brown back, white outer tail, conical bill. Males have a yellow head and underparts; females and immatures are duller with a yellowish face. Rock bunting has a grey striped head and no yellow head.
About 16–16.5 cm long at species level, with a wingspan of about 23–29.5 cm. A separate measured series from Georgia is not given on this page.
Mainly seeds in winter, taken on the ground, often in small flocks. Diet has not been studied separately in Georgia on this page.
As a winter visitor: late autumn, winter, and early spring, according to the 2024 checklist. Song from a hedge in midsummer is not the status that checklist assigns to Georgia.
The 2024 national bird checklist does not list it as a breeder. Some international handbooks map isolated breeding in the Caucasus and along the eastern Black Sea; that is a regional statement, not a confirmed Georgian nesting status on the checklist used here.
It is harmless. It is globally Least Concern and is not on Georgia’s 2014 Red List. Do not catch wild birds.
- Budagashvili & Javakhishvili 2024 — The birds of Georgia (Sandgrouse 46)
- BirdLife International 2024 — IUCN Red List account for Emberiza citrinella
- BirdLife DataZone — Yellowhammer factsheet
- IOC World Bird List
- Avibase — Georgia bird checklist
- საქართველოს მთავრობის დადგენილება №190 (2014) — წითელი ნუსხა
- NPLG Wiki Dictionaries — ჩვეულებრივი გრატა
- EUNIS — Emberiza citrinella
- RSPB — Yellowhammer
- Wikimedia Commons — Emberiza citrinella XC457380 (Hannu Varkki, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Species profiles are compiled from peer-reviewed literature and established biodiversity databases, and are reviewed as new taxonomic and conservation data become available.
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