Ortolan Bunting Call MP3s
Once trapped by the tens of thousands each autumn for the table, the Ortolan Bunting's soft, descending song is now heard mainly by birders and researchers tracking its recovery.
Also known as
Recordings (4)
About this species
Around 16 cm in length, the Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana) is a passerine songbird: olive-headed with a yellow throat and eye-ring and a pink bill. It is widespread across open farmland, downland and rough grassland.
The male's wistful, ringing phrase, slowing at the end, has made it a prized songster for centuries. It takes small seeds and aquatic invertebrates sieved from the surface and shallow mud. A shy, ground-loving migrant, it slips quietly through cover on its long journey to Africa. On migration it moves through Greece and the Mediterranean in great numbers, a familiar bird of field, wood and garden.
Legal use
The Ortolan Bunting breeds from Spain across Europe to Central Asia and winters in sub-Saharan Africa, and it is fully protected under the EU Birds Directive and the Bern Convention, with no lawful hunting season anywhere in the EU; France, historically the center of its use as a culinary delicacy, banned its capture outright in 1999, though enforcement was inconsistent for years afterward. Illegal netting still occurs during migration, particularly in southwest France (an estimated tens of thousands of birds annually by some counts), and has been linked to the species' steep population decline — roughly 88% between 1980 and 2016 — so any real-world use of this recording should be limited to identification, research, or conservation monitoring. See our full country-by-country disclaimer for the legal position outside the EU, including parts of its Asian breeding range and African wintering grounds.