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The UK Bird Atlas

Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra)Where and when to see it in the UK

Resident · reporting peaks May to July · Old World Buntings · BOU category AF

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

Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra)
Steve Riall, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Corn 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.

Corn Bunting has been recorded in 776 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (26%) in records to 2026. Resident in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in May to July.

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
30% or more of visits
High
7% to 30%
Moderate
2% to 7%
Low
under 2%
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 46%1%Moderate
February 41%<1%Moderate
March 50%1%Very high
April 73%2%Very high
May 98%2%Very high
June 100%2%Very high
July 86%2%Very high
August 33%<1%Low
September 19%<1%Low
October 27%<1%Low
November 37%<1%Low
December 36%<1%Low

Squares with the highest reporting rate in May

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HZ27Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
NH95Highland, Scotland100%Very high
NJ17Moray, Scotland100%Very high
NJ56Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NJ75Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NJ84Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NJ94Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK04Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK06Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%Very high
NK14Aberdeenshire, Scotland100%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.