Cinereous Bunting
Emberiza cineracea
Similar to Ortolan and Cretzschmar's Buntings. Males are faintly-streaked with a yellow-green head. Some populations have a yellow belly while others have a gray-white belly. Females and young lack bright yellow tones and are faintly streaked on the throat and breast. Belly whitish, not orange or buff like Ortolan and Cretzschmar’s Bunting. Breeds on open rocky mountain slopes with scattered bushes. During migration found in a varity of open habitats. Flight call is similar to that of Cretzschmar's Bunting, a sharp "Tzip."
Identification
The cinereous bunting is a large (16–17 cm), slim bunting with a long, white-cornered tail. The term cinereous describes its colouration. It is less streaked than many buntings and has a thick pale bill. It has a greyish back with only subdued dark markings, and a browner tint to the wings.<p>The adult male's head is dull yellow, with a brighter moustachial line and throat. In the nominate race of south-west Turkey, the rest of the underparts are grey, but the eastern form E. c. semenowi has yellow underparts.<p>Females are brownish grey above with a whitish throat and yellow only in the moustachial stripe. Young birds have a plain pale belly and streaking on the breast.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Emberiza cineracea
- Authority
- Brehm, CL, 1855
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Emberizidae
- Genus
- Emberiza
Range and habitat
The cinereous bunting breeds on dry stony mountain slopes. It breeds in southern Turkey and southern Iran, and winters around the Red Sea in north-eastern Africa and Yemen. A few isolated populations just about maintain a foothold within European borders, on islands in the Aegean Sea.
- Breeding range
- PAL : sc W Palearctic dry rocky hills: Lesbos and Chios (e Greece), sw, c, se Turkey, n Iraq and far nw Iran
- Non-breeding range
- coastal s Red Sea from ne Sudan through Eritrea and sw Arabian Pen., in dry open areas
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Plain Pigeon
Patagioenas inornata
A large pale pigeon of woodlands and forest edges; often found perching high in trees. Its ruddy shoulders and unbanded tail readily separate it from the similar Ring-tailed Pigeon. When perched, note the whispy whitish leading edge to wing, seen as a bar on upperwing in flight, that is suggestive of White-winged Dove, but that species has brighter white wing markings and is smaller. Scaly-naped and White-crowned Pigeons are much darker. Call is a soft, deep “HOOO-hoo-hoooo” and variations thereof but never similar to “oooOOO-hooo” of Ring-tailed Pigeon.
Grenada Dove
Leptotila wellsi
A somewhat large, chunky dove of dry scrub woodlands where it is typically found foraging on ground. Its plain plumage, the lack of white on the wings, and the very limited white on its tail, distinguish it from other doves on Grenada. Its song is a drawn out low, plaintive “Hooooooo,” loudest near start. Critically endangered.
Karoo Scrub-Robin
Tychaedon coryphoeus
A drab, gray-brown scrub-robin with bold white tail tips, eyebrow, and throat markings. Pairs are active and noisy in dry scrubby thickets and arid brush, where they vocalize prominently from the top of shrubs, fences, and rocks, or hop and run around on the ground, sometimes with their tails cocked. A scolding harsh contact call and warbler-like song draws attention to them. Other scrub-robins in the same range are more strikingly colored, and chats lack the white tail tips of Karoo Scrub-Robin.
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