Yellowhammer: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Garden Birds of Europe · day 1 of 7

Five facts

1. People often put the male's song into words as a polite request for some bread but no cheese. Young males learn the tune from their fathers.
2. Yellowhammers sing in regional dialects. Females favour a male who shares their local dialect and knows lots of song variants.
3. Its eggs are covered in fine dark squiggles, as if someone had doodled on them. This earned the bird the old nickname "scribble lark".
4. For their first days, chicks are fed only tiny creatures like insects. From day three, the parents add cereal grains to the menu.
5. A male's yellow gets richer with age: each time he moults, he gains more yellow feathers. A full moult takes at least eight weeks.

The quiz

1. Who do young male yellowhammers learn their song from?

• Pine buntings
• Cuckoos
• Their fathers (correct)
• Nobody, they hatch knowing it

Males pick up their song from their fathers.

2. Which males do female yellowhammers prefer?

• Males with many song variants (correct)
• Males singing a foreign dialect
• Males that never sing
• Males that build the nest alone

Females choose males sharing their dialect and with the biggest song collection.

3. What old nickname did its patterned eggs give the yellowhammer?

• Painted finch
• Speckle sparrow
• Ink thrush
• Scribble lark (correct)

The fine dark lines on its eggs gave it the name scribble lark.

4. From day three, what do parents add to the chicks' insect diet?

• Nectar
• Cereal grains (correct)
• Small fish
• Tree sap

Chicks get only invertebrates at first, then cereal grains too from day three.

5. What happens to a male yellowhammer each time he moults?

• He gains more yellow (correct)
• He loses all his yellow
• His tail turns blue
• He moults in a single day

Males get more yellow with every moult, which lasts at least eight weeks.

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