Birdwatch News Archive

Corn Bunting song is instantly recognisable but seldom heard these days; the last half of its song can be euqated to a local dialect and is locality-specific. Photo: Steve Riall (commons.wikimedia.org).

Dialect indicates decline in Corn Bunting

Posted on: 29 Sep 2012

Regional variations in the songs of Corn Bunting in the Outer Hebrides have suggested that the species is mixing up previously separated populations.

Scientists from Aberystwyth University have discovered that they can identify different local populations of Corn Bunting from variation in their songs. Only the males of the species sing, and were able to find enough mates within their own diaspora when the species was more common. However, the researchers found that dialect groups are now beginning to mix, indicating that unmated males are looking further afield for breeding partners.

RSPB Scotland believe there could be as few as 76 territorial males in the Outer Hebrides. Since last year, the society has been providing local farmers with a specially-created mix of partially-crushed Barley to help the buntings survive through winter. RSPB Scotland estimates that only 800 breeding pairs of Corn Bunting are left in the whole of Scotland.

Jamie Boyle of RSPB Scotland said on the BBC website that: "Just as it is possible to tell whether someone is from North or South Uist by listening carefully to their voices, so it is possible to do the same with Corn Buntings. What concerns us is that the researchers are picking up evidence of the different dialect groups beginning to mix together. This could well be a reaction to the overall population decline."

Corn Bunting has "a unique pattern of micro-geographic song variation", according to an ongoing study at Aberystwyth University. Songs are formulated in two parts|: a song type in two to three forms, and a second 'dialect', which is almost identical within a particular dialect group.