Masked Bunting
Emberiza personata
A small migratory songbird breeding in low to mid-elevation, moist mixed forest and wintering in woodland and scrub, preferring thick undergrowth, especially dwarf bamboo. Brown, streaked upperparts, grayish head and pale yellow underparts with fine, dark streaking. Male has deeper coloration, stronger streaks, black face and chin. Similar to Yellow Bunting but has more streaking on underparts. Very skulking but presence often betrayed in winter by a high-pitch “chip!”. Song is a short, slow melody ending in a trill, “chip chew chiriririii”.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Emberiza personata
- Authority
- Temminck, 1836
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Emberizidae
- Genus
- Emberiza
Range and habitat
- Breeding range
- PAL : temperate far ne Palearctic woodland edge: s Sakhalin and Kuril Is. (se Russia), Hokkaido and n, c Honshu (n, c Japan)
- Non-breeding range
- temperate to subtropical e Asian woodland and disturbed areas: n Honshu to Izu and Ryukyu is. (c, s Japan)
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
African Rail
Rallus caerulescens
Classic, mid-sized rail. Note the brown back, gray head and chest, barred belly, and reddish bill and legs. Found in wetlands ranging from flooded grassland to deep swamps. Especially favors cattail marshes. Fairly reclusive but walks out into the open more often than most rails. Usually detected by call, a loud, accelerating series of notes that descend the scale. Shares a similar color pattern with African Crake, but African Rail has a longer bill and an unspotted back.
White-bridled Finch
Melanodera melanodera
Handsome “finch” (actually a tanager); scarce and local on grassy Patagonian steppe, but fairly common locally on heathland in Falklands; also ranges to coastal dunes, mainly in winter. Found in pairs or small groups, feeding on the ground. Male is distinctive with a black throat framed in white and yellow wing and tail edgings; bright sulfur-yellow wings of mainland birds flash in flight while Falkland birds are dull-winged. Female is streaky overall and is best identified by habitat, company of males, and yellow edgings to wing and tail feathers. Compare with female Plumbeous Sierra-Finch and female Yellow-bridled Finch.
Yellow-necked Spurfowl
Pternistis leucoscepus
A large brown francolin with yellow bare skin on the throat and red bare skin around the eyes. The bill and legs are black. Pale patches in the outer wings are conspicuous in flight. Found in a variety of fairly arid savanna habitats and in adjacent agricultural fields. Usually in pairs or small groups. Easily separated from other francolins by its bare yellow throat. The call is a fading series of rough “kreaaak” notes.
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