Reed Bunting Call MP3s
A common sight perched on reed stems with its distinctive black-and-white head pattern, the Reed Bunting's simple, repetitive song is a familiar sound of wetland margins.
Also known as
Recordings (4)
About this species
The Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) is a passerine songbird of around 15 cm — the male smartly black-headed with a white collar and moustache. It is tied to reedbeds, marshes and waterside scrub.
The male's halting, simple, scratchy song is repeated endlessly from a reed stem. It takes small seeds and aquatic invertebrates sieved from the surface and shallow mud. It clings sideways to reed stems, flicking its tail, and sings its halting song from a swaying perch. Its voice is woven into the soundscape of the European countryside through spring and summer.
Legal use
The Reed Bunting is widespread across Europe and temperate Asia as far as Japan, favoring wetland and reedbed habitat, and is protected as a wild bird under the UK Wildlife and Countryside Act, the EU Birds Directive, and Appendix II of the Bern Convention throughout that range; it is not recognised as a huntable game species anywhere we are aware of. It is assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN globally due to its broad distribution and large population, though it is Amber-listed for conservation concern in the UK amid regional declines — none of which equates to any legal exemption for hunting or trapping. This recording is intended for identification and birdwatching around marshes and riverbanks; see our full country-by-country disclaimer for details specific to your location.