The Role of the Corn Bunting in Scotland's Ecology
Scotland Outdoors
BBC
4.7 • 756 Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mark Stephen speaks to Professor Will Cresswell about the welcome rise in corn buntings.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio Podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, The Traitors Uncloaked. |
| 0:12.7 | But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's Saturday bonus episodes, |
| 0:18.2 | The Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Rylan, and comedy specials |
| 0:22.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffle and Rommashranganathan. |
| 0:26.0 | However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncoaked. |
| 0:30.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | This Scotland Outdoors podcast from BBC Radio Scotland. |
| 0:46.1 | Hello and thanks very much for choosing to listen to this. |
| 0:48.8 | I am not a bird up per se, but over the years doing this programme, |
| 0:53.0 | I've spoken to hundreds of them. |
| 0:54.6 | And there's a phrase they use, an LBJ means little brown job, a nondescript bird, |
| 1:00.2 | something that wouldn't necessarily excite the average individual. |
| 1:04.6 | Corn bunting is an LBJ. |
| 1:07.2 | It's just a rather nondescript little brown bird, |
| 1:11.4 | but it is really important in the ecology of Scotland. |
| 1:15.4 | As I found out recently when I joined Professor Will Creswell from the University of St Andrews |
| 1:19.7 | in a field in Fife where it was blowing an absolute hoolly. |
| 1:26.9 | Corn buntings look superficially like sparrows. |
| 1:30.1 | They're a little bit bigger than sparrows, |
| 1:31.7 | they're smaller than thrushes. |
| 1:33.6 | They have a kind of distinctive, dumpy, slightly humpback look |
... |
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