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The UK Bird Atlas

Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana)Where and when to see it in the UK

Passage migrant · reporting peaks September to October · Old World Buntings · BOU category AE

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

Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana)
Pierre Dalous, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Peak months
Ortolan 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.

Ortolan Bunting has been recorded in 68 of the 2,971 10 km squares covering UK land (2%) in records to 2026. Passage migrant in the UK. Its strongest squares are in England, Scotland and Wales. Reporting peaks in September to October.

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
100% or more of visits
High
3% to 100%
Moderate
<1% to 3%
Low
under <1%
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 0%<1%Insufficient records
February 0%<1%Insufficient records
March 0%<1%Insufficient records
April 5%<1%Low
May 9%<1%Low
June 2%<1%Very high
July 0%<1%Insufficient records
August 12%<1%Very high
September 100%<1%Very high
October 94%<1%Low
November 0%<1%Very high
December 0%<1%Insufficient records

Squares with the highest reporting rate in September

SquareWhereShare of visitsClass
HU40Shetland Islands, Scotland100%Very high
HY75Sea, off Orkney Islands100%Very high
SU41Hampshire, England100%Very high
SW32Cornwall, England100%Very high
SW53Cornwall, England100%Very high
TA09North Yorkshire, England100%Very high
TA31East Riding of Yorkshire, England100%Very high
TG14Norfolk, England100%Very high
TG20Norfolk, England100%Very high
TL45Cambridgeshire, England100%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.