Common Reed Bunting

How to recognise it

• Breeding male has a black head, white collar and white moustachial stripe
• Female has an unspotted buff-white throat with black throat-side stripes, young birds look like her
• Mostly brown and buff-white plumage with dark streaking and white tail sides
• Rufous lesser wing coverts and a dark, usually small bill

Call and song

The song is a fairly monotonous, repeated "zripp zripp zryy". Calls include a soft "siy" and a rough "bzy". The male sings from a raised perch, often clinging at an angle to a stem with his tail spread.

Where and when

It is a partial migrant that breeds in Sweden. It arrives around March to April and leaves for the Mediterranean countries in October to November. It is reported most in March to June and September, and from all 21 counties. The highest density is in the mountains, where it is numerous in mountain birch forest. Locally, very dense populations occur at lowland lakes in southern and central Sweden.

Food and behaviour

In summer it eats insects, and seeds the rest of the year. Like other seed-eaters, it migrates by day. During courtship the male sometimes raises his white collar. To lure predators away from the nest, it flutters along the ground as if it had an injured wing.