Skylarks, yellowhammers and corn buntings are the birds that one is most likely to see feeding out in the fields in winter. However, it is much harder for them nowadays to find the grain and weed seeds that they depend on. Modern methods of harvesting leave far less grain on the ground, and weeds are systematically killed by pesticides. This is why the numbers of all these three species have gone down.
Nevertheless, they are all still to be met out in the arable fields, especially where farmers make some provision for them. When they fly up, the skylarks can look as yellow as the other two in the rays of the low sun.
Weeds that these birds often turn to for their seeds include black bindweed and fat hen. Black bindweed clambers over the crops in summer with its pink stems and arrow-shaped leaves. It has little greenish flowers which may still be seen here and there and on the dead plants there are black seeds that the birds love. Fat hen is a tall, mealy-looking plant that sometimes grows in abundance at the field edges, and also has black seeds.