- Emberiza aureola
Identification
14-15.5 cm (5½-6 in)
Breeding Male
- Dark rufous-brown upperparts and breast band
- Black face
- Bright yellow underparts
- Large white wing patch on lesser and median coverts
- Pink lower mandible
Female
- Paler yellow underparts
- Buffy supercilium
- Greyish-brown upperparts, heavily streaked
- Dark rear eyestripe
- Grey-brown median crown stripe
- White wing bars
- Pink lower mandible
Variations
2cy male has the white is restricted to the tips of the greater coverts
Distribution
Breeds in central and southeastern Finland, although becoming very rare in recent years, and across Russia from about 53N to the southern Kola Peninsula and White Sea. Outside the Western Palearctic breeds widely across Asia to Kamchatka and northern Japan.
Autumn migration begins in late July and August with most birds wintering from eastern Nepal to southern China and Indochina. Spring passage begins in early April and arrives on Western Palearctic breeding grounds in early June.
Numbers have declined catastrophically in recent years, with illegal hunting on the wintering grounds the main cause; the species is now listed as Endangered[2].
A vagrant in Norway, Sweden and in Britain (236 records to 2013) where the vast majority occur in September with most on Shetland, fewer on the east and south coasts. In Britain, formerly an average of six recorded annually, but numbers have declined in recent years in line with global trends, and is now less than annual. Vagrants also recorded in Spain and Portugal, Latvia, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium and in October 1991 in Sinai, Egypt.
Taxonomy
Subspecies
There are 2 subspecies[1]:
- E. a. aureola:
- E. a. ornata:
- Amur River to Manchuria, North Korea, Kamchatka and Kuril Issland
Habitat
Open areas, usually close to water with dense shrubs and willow and birch scrub, also forest edges and peat bogs.
On passage occurs in cultivated areas, scrubland, sometimes reedbeds.
Behaviour
Breeding
A ground-nester, laying 4-6 eggs
Diet
The diet mainly consists of seeds, but includes insects when rearing a brood.
Vocalisaton
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- BirdLife International: Yellow-breasted Bunting#Bird Guides
- Collins Bird Guide ISBN 0 00 219728 6
- Birdforum thread regarding identification
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Yellow-breasted Bunting. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 23 December 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Yellow-breasted_Bunting
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
