Urban birds at Hull. 21. Yellowhammer

A stunning farmland bird. The male is unmistakeable, with bright yellow head and chest, with a russet rump and streaked back and wings. Relatively long tail with white outer tail feathers. Thin bill. Female has similar markings but with less yellow and more dark streaking on chest. Males sing from a hedge, standing quite upright, a simple phrase that has been likened to 'a little bit of bread and no cheese'. Favours arable and mixed farmland and grassland and scrub with well managed hedgerows with margins of tall grass and ditches.

Status and distribution in Hull

Yellowhammers are a scarce breeding resident bird in Hull, only present in fields on the western and north eastern suburbs. Numbers increase during passage and winter. Recent peak counts in Birdtrack include 30 in October 2008, 25 in January 2014, and 22 in mid September 2016. There is low but regular reporting rate also during the breeding season, with a few breeding pairs in North Bransholme (Noddle Hill, Castle Hill area and East Carr in the fields alongside the Holderness drain, possibly at Kingswood by the river Hull, but numbers are now scarce at Willerby Carr and Priory Fields. Richard Broughton counted just 3 pairs at North Bransholme in 2001, so the numbers seen in 2021 are not too dissimilar, with evidence of 4 territories in spring 2021.

Female Yellowhammer, Noddle Hill LNR, 2nd May 2021.

Two Yellowhammers feeding on a field by the river Hull at Kingswood, 8th March 2017.

Conservation

Yellowhammers are a UK Red listed since 2002 and UK BAP species. As other farmland birds, it has suffered from precipitous and continuing population declines, particularly from the 80s, although at a slower rate. Between 1994 and 2019 the population in Yorkshire and the Humber shrunk another 25%. Agricultural intensification, including use of pesticides depleting the insects and other invertebrates that parents feed chicks, and the reduction of winter stubbles supplying winter seeds are likely to underlie these declines.

Male Yellowhammer with photobombing St Mark's flies, Hornsea Railway track near Castle Hill, 10th May 2021.

Management

Management of local Yellowhammers would share features with Skylark, Linnet and Tree Sparrow and could include. 

• Maintenance of hedgerows in the edges of the city.
• Avoid pesticide use by cycle track margins to increase insect numbers in the summer
• Maintenance of grassland with some scrub in Noddle Hill only at times of year that minimise disturbance
• Farmland biodiversity supporting practices, which could include winter seed supplementation
• Retain remaining suitable habitat
• Surveys to monitor status

More information

Broughton, Richard K. Birds of the Hull Area.

Hart, J. D. et al. The relationship between yellowhammer breeding performance, arthropod abundance and insecticide applications on arable farmland. J. Appl. Ecol. 43, 81–91 (2006)

BBS Population trends graphs.

Top photo: A male Yellowhammer at Haggs Farm, Cottingham, 26 April 2015.