Introduced into New Zealand between 1862 and early 1870’s and now found throughout the country in farmlands, orchards and open tussockland.

As the name suggests the adult male has a bright yellow head and underparts.  The sides of the face and crown are a soft brown, the breast has a cinnamon wash and the flanks are pale yellow.  The adult female is duller and paler yellow.  Both have reddish-brown upperparts, streaked darker, rufous rump and white outer tail feathers.  The call is a ringing metallic ‘tink’ or ‘twick’; the male song is ‘chitty-chitty-chitty…sweee’ or ‘a little bit of bread and no cheese’.

Yellowhammers eat a mix of seeds from introduced weeds, grasses, clover and cereals and invertebrates such as caterpillars, beetles, flies, bugs and spiders.

They form flocks in autumn and winter but are territorial during the breeding season from October to March.  The nest is a cup of dry grass, lined with rootlets, moss, hair, wool and feathers.  It is usually built on or very close to the ground in gorse, brambles, bracken, long grass, etc.  The clutch of 3 – 5 whitish-pink eggs with dark brown scribbling lines is incubated mainly by the female for 12 – 14 days.  Both parents feed the chicks which fledge at 12 – 13 days.

Photography by:  Dr Kerry Rodgers © (male - left) and by Ian Southey © (female - right)

References: Heather, B.D.; Robertson, H.A. 2000 The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand. Auckland, Viking.
Moon, G The Reed Field Guide to New Zealand Birds.