Ortolan Bunting (LBRC)

Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana

Vagrant. Continental Europe.

There have been 35 county records involving 38 birds, the first being one at North Coates on May 3rd 1883, when Cordeaux was walking across a newly-sown oat field near the Humber and saw a small finch-like bird occupied in picking the scattered grains from the surface and approached it to within 10 yd. He identified it as a female Ortolan and watched it for half an hour. He noted that the head and nape were light grey, contrasting with the rest of the upperside; a patch of brown on the forehead and streaky brown patches from the bill running below and beyond the eye; a dusky brown spot on each side of the breast suggesting the start of a collar; much white in the  outer tail feathers. He conjectured that very strong NE winds of the previous few days had drifted the bird to the Lincolnshire coast.

Since then, the subsequent records have all come since 1963. Donna Nook has accounted for 18 of the records (19 birds) and the concentration along the coastal strip between Tetney and Theddlethorpe is quite marked. Strangely, Gibraltar Point has had just one record in August 1973 while in contrast there have been four inland records (5 birds) at Covenham Reservoir. The most recent record at Town’s Holt, Grimsby in August 2019 was 27 years since the previous at Donna Nook on September 19th, 1992.

 (Photograph of this species taken in Lincolnshire required - anyone?)

From being a scarce passage migrant in Britain, this species has almost reached vagrant status in recent years and the average per year by decades has fallen from 72 during 1990-99 to 31, 2010-18. This is no doubt linked to the fact the species has undergone the second most pronounced decline of any bird species in temperate western Europe with an estimated population reduction of 82% between 1980 and 2008. It has now been lost as a breeding species from Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the last decade. Habitat loss and degradation and subsequent reduction in prey items are cited as the main reasons for decline, although illegal captures during migration, particularly in France, cannot be helping. Fortunately, the species has a large range stretching east across into Asia and the species does not reach the threshold for Vulnerable; population estimate across the range is 8,000,000-17,999,999 (BirdLife International 2020 Species factsheet).

Reference

Cordeaux, J. (1883). The Ortolan Bunting in Lincolnshire. The Zoologist series 3, volume 7: 253-254.

(Updated with reference to the new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021) January 2023)