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
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Daptrius albogularis
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Gray Fantail
Rhipidura albiscapa
Small songbird with long, pale-tipped tail, tiny, thin bill. Gray above, pale below, with narrow pale wingbars and a thin black border between white throat and chest. Frequently cocks and fans tail. Subspecies vary in upperparts tone and extent of white in the tail. Inhabits wide range of habitats, very active in foraging, and rarely perches in the same place for long.
West African Wattle-eye
Dyaphorophyia hormophora
Chunky and short-tailed rainforest wattle-eye. Males are black-and-white, with a white collar all the way around the neck and a very broad black breast band. Females are mostly chestnut, with a white belly and mostly gray head. Both sexes have bluish-purple bare skin around the eyes. Found in the understory and middle levels of rainforest and gallery forest, at middle and low elevations. The vocalizations are highly variable but consist of repeated notes, which can be clear toots or frog-like sounds.
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