Tag: Yellow-breasted Bunting

Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola, Cape Nanhui, Shanghai, October. (Craig Brelsford)

Cape Nanhui, Shanghai, November. (Craig Brelsford)

Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola is an increasingly rare passage migrant in Shanghai. Broad breeding range, from Finland to Kamchatka, with aureola breeding in Altai Mountains in Xinjiang and ornata in Heilongjiang. Migrants funneled through China to more compact wintering range in Southeast Asia, India, and southern China, including Hainan. HABITAT Breeds in dry meadows and riparian grasslands, usually with thick undergrowth and scattered trees; winter habitat includes grass and scrub, reed beds, and bushy edges of cultivated land. Numbers declining dramatically because of increased trapping, mainly in China; thousands are caught in mist nets, cooked, and sold as “rice birds.” ID & COMPARISON Stocky, mid-sized bunting, slightly larger than Chestnut Bunting E. rutila. Breeding male ornata distinctive, with black face, unstreaked reddish-brown upperparts, conspicuous white patch on scapulars, bold white wingbar, and reddish-brown breast band contrasting with yellow underparts. Flanks streaked black; brown tail fringed white on outer rectrices. Nominate similar but shows less black on crown and is paler. Winter male loses much of black coloration on face and breast band and has narrower wing patch. Female larger than female Chestnut Bunting and has heavily streaked grey-brown rump. Has more strikingly patterned head, with a pale median crown-stripe contrasting with black lateral crown-stripes, a broad buffish-yellow supercilium, and a black postocular eyestripe and black border below yellow-brown cheek. Also shows two pale streaks on mantle and two white wingbars. Juvenile like female but paler and shows streaking on breast. VOICE Call a thin, sharp tick. Song a clear, loud series of five to nine whistles, usually rising up the scale to the final two notes, which fall. — Craig Brelsford

THE BUNTINGS OF CHINA

shanghaibirding.com has research on most of the buntings of China. Click any link below:

Crested Bunting Emberiza lathami
Yellowhammer E. citrinella
Pine Bunting E. leucocephalos
Rock Bunting E. cia
Godlewski’s Bunting E. godlewskii
Meadow Bunting E. cioides
Jankowski’s Bunting E. jankowskii
Grey-necked Bunting E. buchanani
Ortolan Bunting E. hortulana
Tristram’s Bunting E. tristrami
Chestnut-eared Bunting E. fucata
Little Bunting E. pusilla
Yellow-browed Bunting E. chrysophrys
Rustic Bunting E. rustica
Yellow-throated Bunting E. elegans
Yellow-breasted Bunting E. aureola
Chestnut Bunting E. rutila
Tibetan Bunting E. koslowi
Black-headed Bunting E. melanocephala
Red-headed Bunting E. bruniceps
Yellow Bunting E. sulphurata
Black-faced Bunting E. spodocephala
Masked Bunting E. personata
Pallas’s Reed Bunting E. pallasi
Japanese Reed Bunting E. yessoensis
Common Reed Bunting E. schoeniclus

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