Male Cirl Buntings have noticeable black-and-yellow facial stripes; females and young birds are duller. The British population lives in farmland with hedges and grassland and changes its diet with the seasons.
Males have black-and-yellow facial stripes and chestnut-brown wings. Females and young birds are duller and look more like Yellowhammers.
Researchers followed song in a reintroduced Cirl Bunting population in Cornwall, southwest England, for eight years. Nestlings from Devon were moved, hand-reared, and released. Recordings in 2011 showed fewer song types than in the source populations, along with some unusual types that were not recorded in Devon.
By 2019, recordings were of wild-born birds, and the Cornwall population's song repertoire had reached the level found in source populations of similar size. The songs were species-typical. The study documents how song diversity in this reintroduced Cirl Bunting population changed between the last release year and eight years later.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In the Cornwall translocated population, song repertoire reached the level of similarly sized source populations by 2019, with species-typical songs; the 2019 recordings were of wild-born birds.