The beautiful Ortolan Bunting Emberiza hortulana is a fairly scarce summer visitor to southern Europe (parts of the Iberian Peninsula, southern France, and the Balkans), north into Scandinavia and Germany, and east as far as Mongolia. As much as 50% of the global population is found in Europe, and the entire population apparently winters south of the Sahara. Eastern populations migrate back north through the Middle East from mid-March to April - which is when these three birds were photographed (Doha, Qatar, April). Often quite approachable if care is taken, Ortolans are more insectivorous than many other buntings and are sometimes seen flycatching from tree perches, though typically are found foraging on the ground for seeds like the birds shown here (though whether birds migrating though desert regions like these have much of a choice either way is debatable!).

Though they nest on the ground, Ortolans do seem to prefer sites with trees in them and a marked decline in western and central Europe appears (according to “Buntings and Sparrows”, Byers, Olsson, and Curson. Pica Press 1995) to be linked to the “Destruction of trees lining country roads and small fileds, often in combination with reduction in crop diversity…” Breeding densities in most areas are quite low, and though Birdlife International still classifies the species as Least Concern, it is also recognised as being Depleted and conservation action will surely need to be taken if numbers continue to fall.

Adult male Ortolan Buntings, Doha, Qatar. April

 

Adult female Ortolan Bunting, Doha, Qatar. April

Another threat facing this lovely species is its status in some circles as a gourmet’s treat. Unbelievably a bird with as much meat on it as a - er, sparrow, is considered something of a delicacy by the same sort of gourmands who think the Romans had it right when they served up lark’s tongues and pickled boar testicles at their orgies. Though eating Ortolans is now - finally - illegal across Europe, some morons still do eat them - after fattening them up by force-feeding them with corn or millet and then drowning them in Armagnac. In fact the odious former President of France Francois Mitterand is widely reported to have requested Ortolans for his last meal. Tradition, don’t you just love it…

(Heck, I’m sure most 10,000 Birds readers would expect a rant like that from me, so how about a rather brilliant paragraph from someone totally unconnected which sums up my feelings about eating small rare birds perfectly (and which I found on the net this morning): “This is true decadence in the Roman style, and not in a good way. No, this is 5-minutes-before-the-fall-of-the-Empire, profoundly pessimistic, joyless decadence. The nihilist’s last meal, sucking the last bitter juice out of the world, leaving nothing behind but an empty husk, and not caring a whit about it. A cullinary “Après moi, le déluge”. ” (http://cyclotram.blogspot.com). Exactly.)

All photographs copyright Charlie Moores 2008