Yellow-breasted Bunting
Emberiza aureola
Large bunting of agricultural fields, meadows, and wetlands; formerly gathered in immense congregations in winter but now rare due to trapping. Breeding male stunning, with a black face, deep chestnut-brown crown, nape, wings, and back, white wingbars, and bright yellow underparts with chestnut breast band. Nonbreeding male is a faded version of this plumage. Female streaky brown above, yellowish with streaks below, with facial pattern reminiscent of Yellow-browed Bunting, but much larger, with a strong yellow wash to the undersides.
Identification
The yellow-breasted bunting is a small passerine, ranging from 14 to 16 cm (5.5 to 6.3 in) in length, and weighing 17 to 26 g (0.6 to 0.9 oz). For a bunting, it is large and rather stocky.<p>The breeding male has bright white underparts with black flank streaks, brown upperparts, black face and throat bar, and a pink lower mandible. The female has a heavily streaked grey-brown back, and less intensely yellow underparts. She has a whitish face with dark crown, eye and cheek stripes. The juvenile is similar, but the background colour of the underparts and face is buff.[citation needed]
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Emberiza aureola
- Authority
- Pallas, 1773
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Emberizidae
- Genus
- Emberiza
Range and habitat
Emberiza aureola aureola breeds in boreal forests of Finland to Bering Sea migrating to Indochina. Emberiza aureola ornata breeds from the Amur River to Manchuria, N Korea, Kamchatka and Kuril Islands. It is migratory, wintering in south-east Asia, India, and North Korea. It is a rare but regular wanderer to western Europe. There are also ~4 records from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and a 2017 record from Labrador, Canada. The species winters in large flocks in cultivated areas, rice fields and grasslands, preferring to roost in rice-fields.
- Breeding range
- PAL : subarctic to n temperate Palearctic bushy areas: Murmansk (far nw Russia; formerly e Finland) e to s Chukotka, Kamchatka, Kuril and Commander is., Sakhalin (e Russia); in s to far n Kazakhstan, far n Xinjiang (nw China), n, c Mongolia, n Inner Mongolia and Heilongjiang (ne China) and far n Hokkaido (n Japan)
- Non-breeding range
- subtropical e Asian fields: sub-Himalayan zone from c Nepal e through se Asia (except s Malay Pen.) and se China
- Migration
- Complete migrants
Conservation
Populations have declined precipitously since the early 2000s, and the species is now considered to be critically endangered. The decline of the yellow-breasted bunting is likely to be caused by substantial trapping during migration and most specifically at winter sites. Birds are flushed then caught in mist-nets, to be sold for consumption as "sparrows" or "rice birds". Even though the actions have been restricted to a small area in southern China, it has become more widespread and popular to increasing wealth, and hunters now travel long distances to find sufficient birds.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Eastern Olivaceous Warbler
Iduna pallida
Small, pallid olive-gray warbler. Very similar to other Iduna and Acrocephalus species. Note its long and slender bill and faint pale wing panel (most prominent when plumage is fresh, sometimes not noticeable). Pumps its long tail continuously as it flits around in bushes and trees after small insects, a behavior which separates it from very similar Acrocephalus warblers. Found in open woodlands, riparian forest, as well as dry and semi-arid zones; strong connection with Tamarix bushes. Call is a dry and harsh “chack.” Song is a repeating scratchy sequence.
Wattled Lapwing
Vanellus senegallus
A large, brownish lapwing endowed with yellow wattles that have distinctive fleshy red bases. The juvenile has smaller wattles. Pairs or small groups prefer marshes and wet grasslands, as well as the flooded edges of lakes, pans, and seeps. Also be found in dry savanna, cropped and burnt grasslands, or cultivated fields. It attracts attention to itself with a loud “peep-peep-peep” call. White-crowned Lapwing is similar but is smaller, has a white belly, and lacks the red bases to the wattles.
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