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The UK Bird Atlas

Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus)Where and when to see it in the UK

Status not yet classified · reporting peaks March · Old World Buntings · BOU category A

Records to 2026-08-16 · build 2026-08-31

Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus)
Paco Gómez from Castellón, Spain, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Cirl Bunting: relative reporting rate by 10 km square, September

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (grid squares, place names from OS Open Names). Northern Ireland place names: OSNI Open Data, OGL v3.0. County and country boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Coastline: Natural Earth. Bird records from the data partners listed here.

Cirl Bunting has been recorded in 62 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (2%) in records to 2026. Its strongest squares are in England and Wales. Reporting peaks in March.

Conservation status: Least Concern (IUCN Red List, LC)
View on the IUCN Red List
Relative to this species' best squares (how classes are calculated)
Very high
40% or more of visits
High
10% to 40%
Moderate
3% to 10%
Low
under 3%
Surveyed, not recorded
at least 20 qualifying visits, no record
Insufficient records
too few visits to say
Lighter fill
Few visits, lower confidence
Small dot
Occasional: a single record, or out of season

Seasonality

Reporting rate by month, relative to the peak month
MonthRelative to peakShare of visitsTypical class
January 70%<1%Low
February 80%<1%Very high
March 91%<1%Very high
April 0%<1%Very high
May 0%<1%Very high
June 0%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Very high
August 100%<1%Moderate
September 68%<1%High
October 86%<1%Moderate
November 69%<1%Low
December 50%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in March

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
SS92Devon, England100%Very high
ST24Somerset, England100%Very high
SW84Cornwall, England100%Very high
SX74Devon, England100%Very high
SX86Devon, England100%Very high
SX87Devon, England100%Very high
SX94Sea, off Devon100%Very high
SX54Devon, England86%Very high
SX73Devon, England62%Very high
SX44Cornwall, England57%Very high

Spotted an error in a square? Report it and it goes into the review queue. Read the methodology for how classes, flags and sensitive-species rules work. Data to 2026.