The Collaborative International Dictionary
Yellowhammer \Yel"low*ham`mer\, n. [For yellow-ammer, where ammer is fr. AS. amore a kind of bird; akin to G. ammer a yellow-hammer, OHG. amero.] (Zo["o]l.)
A common European finch ( Emberiza citrinella). The color of the male is bright yellow on the breast, neck, and sides of the head, with the back yellow and brown, and the top of the head and the tail quills blackish. Called also yellow bunting, scribbling lark, and writing lark. [Written also yellow-ammer.]
The flicker. [Local, U. S.]
WordNet
n. European bunting the male being bright yellow [syn: yellowhammer, Emberiza citrinella]
Wikipedia
The yellow bunting or Japanese yellow bunting (Emberiza sulphurata) is a passerine bird of eastern Asia which belongs to the genus Emberiza in the bunting family Emberizidae.
It is 14 cm long and has a conical, grey bill, pinkish-brown feet and brown eyes. The male is grey-green above with black streaks on the back. The underparts are yellow-green (brightest on the throat and belly) with streaks on the flanks. It has black lores, a narrow black chin, a pale eye ring and white outer tail feathers. There are two bars on the wing, formed by pale tips to the median and greater wing coverts. The female is similar to the male but paler without the black on the lores and chin. The species has a twittering song and a soft tsip call.
The breeding season lasts from mid-May to early July. The nest is built low in a bush and three to five eggs are laid.
The yellow bunting breeds only in Japan where it is uncommon. It is found mainly on the largest island Honshū but may also breed on Kyūshū and possibly bred on Hokkaidō in the past. It occurs in forest and woodland between 600 and 1500 metres above sea level, mainly in the central and northern parts of Honshū. A few birds winter in the warmer regions of Japan but most migrate further south. It has been recorded from the Philippines, Taiwan, Hong Kong and south-east China at this season but is scarce everywhere. It occurs in woodland, scrub, grassland and farmland during winter. Small numbers pass though Korea on spring and autumn migration.
The total population of the yellow bunting is small and decreasing and the species is classified as vulnerable by the IUCN. It is threatened by habitat loss, the use of pesticides and trapping for the cagebird industry.
Usage examples of "yellow bunting".
Angling and disputing for positions at her feet and over various parts of her accommodating body were a whitethroat, a fieldfare, a willowwren, a nuthatch, a tree-pipit, a sand martin, a red-backed shrike, a goldfinch, a yellow bunting, two jays, a greater spotted woodpecker, three moorhens (on her lap with a mallard, a woodcock, and a curlew), a wagtail, four missel thrushes, six blackbirds, a nightingale and twentyseven sparrows.
Black and yellow bunting or a banner flew from every civilian vehicle she saw, but many of them obviously carried would-be neutrals who were leaving town with the most portable of their valuables.
They would have draped the yellow bunting over the gate of Keilloran House, they would have read the words for the dead, they would have put up a stone for him in the family burial-ground.
One day on her way to the bookstore she passed a shop and went in to buy a yellow bunting with a carriage cover to match.
Some several square yards of yellow bunting, charged with the image of another double-headed eagle, floating from the highest flag-staff above the building, betrayed to the initiated the fact that a Russian Grand Duke was concealed somewhere on the premises.