The sedge bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) is a medium-sized bunting, the same size and build as a sparrow. When stretched, it measures from the tip of the bill to the end of the tail between 13 and 16 cm. The dark bill is relatively small, and in the plumage the shades of brown and brownish-white colors predominate with a pattern of darker stripes; white outer tail feathers are also characteristic of the sedge bunting. During the breeding season we can easily distinguish the male from the female (and from other species), as it has a completely black head, mask and cheeks; the darkness also extends from its throat to the chest. In summer the male is also characterized by a white collar, which extends from his black ’bib’ on the nape and includes also a white mustache by the bill. In winter the male's head is not as contrastingly colored; raven-blackness almost completely disappears – leaving only a striped pattern on the chest, hinting at the summer coloration. The white moustache and collar are retained by the males in winter, but the collar no longer reaches the nape. The female in summer does not have a collar (only a white moustache); in addition, her head is not uniformly black, and on the flanks and chest she is much more distinctly longitudinally striped.
The sedge bunting is a daytime-active bird that forages for food in low vegetation. Adults prefer to feed on seeds, especially seeds of grasses, but in summer a larger part of the diet consists of insects and similar invertebrates, with which the parents also feed the chicks.
In our country it occurs year-round, as in winter populations of sedge buntings that nest high in northern Europe also drift to us to escape the severe cold. Between April and June it most often nests in sedge beds and marsh meadows with sparse willow shrubs; if this is not possible, it also settles in areas with drier ground, for example on cereal fields. The female builds a nest from grasses, twigs and pieces of sedge and lines it with soft moss. In such a nest, hidden at ground level in dense vegetation, each year she lays two or three broods of young.
Across its entire range, the sedge bunting is threatened by the disappearance of sedge wetlands due to the drying up of marshy areas and the regulation of waterways. A major negative impact on its populations also comes from the intensification of agriculture with excessive use of insecticides and reducing landscape heterogeneity by introducing monocultures. In wintering areas it is most affected by autumn sowing, as this causes the stubble to disappear, where they find shelter during the winter and the grain that remained on the ground from the harvest. The sedge bunting is considered in Slovenia to be a rare breeder.
