Ortolan Bunting

Emberiza hortulana

The ortolan, also called ortolan bunting, is a Eurasian bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a passerine family now separated by most modern scholars from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name Emberiza is from Alemannic German Embritz, a bunting. The specific name hortulana is from the Italian name for this bird, ortolana. The English ortolan is derived from Middle French hortolan, "gardener". Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this bird was recorded 5,637 times across 38 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the Ortolan Bunting on the live map

Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 20°C (typically 14 to 24°C, from 14 areas). That range is wide, so temperature alone does not explain when it turns up.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 41°N in March to 67°N in January, about 2,900 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

Download every area as CSV

Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.