Buntings | Emberizidae

Gorzen | Escribanos

Seed-eaters with a conical bill as well, but built differently from the finches: the upper mandible is narrower than the lower, with wavy cutting edges, and the palate carries a hard knob against which the seed is rolled and hulled; the gape is also distinctly angled. These are birds of open country — arable, heath, rough grass, mountain slopes — feeding on or just above the ground, though they raise their young on insects. Females and young are brown and streaked, males carry a sharply drawn head pattern; in flight the fairly long tail with white outer feathers catches the eye. The song is short, dry and monotonously repeated from a low lookout, and the nest sits on the ground or low in the vegetation.