Emberiza citrinella
The yellowhammer is a passerine bird in the bunting family that is native to Eurasia and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia. Most European birds remain in the breeding range year-round, but the eastern subspecies is partially migratory, with much of the population wintering further south. The male yellowhammer has a bright yellow head, streaked brown back, chestnut rump, and yellow under parts. Other plumages are duller versions of the same pattern. The yellowhammer is common in open areas with some shrubs or trees, and forms small flocks in winter. Its song has a rhythm like "A little bit of bread and no cheese". The song is very similar to that of its closest relative, the pine bunting, with which it interbreeds.

Andreas Trepte · CC BY-SA 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- yellowhammerPBDB
- Sits inside
- EmberizaPBDB
- Diet
- granivorePBDB, for Emberizidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Emberizidae
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Theropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Emberizidae
- Mass
- 2.94 gWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 762 thousand years on record.
The record covers at least 774 ka to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 1.8 Mya to 0 Mya.
4 occurrences of Emberiza citrinella on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Pleistocene75%
- Holocene25%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Emberiza citrinella and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Emberiza citrinella and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
190 taxa- Turdus philomelos4 sites
- Alauda arvensis3 sites
- Anguis fragilis3 sites
- Bufo bufo3 sites
- Turdus merula3 sites
- Anthus pratensis2 sites
- Apodemus2 sites
- Bufo calamita2 sites
- Columba oenas2 sites
- Coronella austriaca2 sites
- Corvus monedula2 sites
- Coturnix coturnix2 sites
- Eremophila alpestris2 sites
- Erinaceus2 sites
- Galerida cristata2 sites
- Hirundo rustica2 sites
- Lacerta2 sites
- Lacertidae2 sites
- Microtus2 sites
- Myotis2 sites
- Natrix natrix2 sites
- Rana2 sites
- Rhinolophus2 sites
- Sturnus vulgaris2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Emberiza citrinella, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- New Neanderthal remains from Mani peninsula, Southern Greece: The Kalamakia Middle Paleolithic cave site1
- A catalogue of British Pleistocene birds identified by Colin JO Harrison and stored in the Natural History Museum, London, (Department of Palaeontology)1
- Implications of the avian fauna for palaeoecology in the Early Pleistocene of the Iberian Peninsula1
- Quaternary fossil fauna of South Canterbury, South Island, New Zealand1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Emberiza citrinella
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Andreas Trepte
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 2.5
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itEmberiza through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758