Alternative name: Masked Bunting
- Emberiza spodocephala
Identification
13·5–16 cm (5¼-6¼ in)
Breeding male
- Head dark olive-grey
- Yellow green and black markings between bill and eye
- Upperparts brown, heavily streaked with black
- Brown rump
- Dark brown tail
- Yellow-white underparts
- Fine dark brown flank streaks
- Pink stout bill
Female and young birds
- Weaker head pattern
- Olive-grey cheeks
- Weak creamy-white supercilium
- Underparts creamy yellow heavily streaked with dark brown.
Similar Species
Masked Bunting differs markedly by its yellow throat and breast. Yellow Bunting has plainer face and more prominent wing-bars. Reed Bunting and Pallas's Reed Bunting lack the yellow underparts and heavy pinkish bill. Winter plumage of continental populations recall Reed Bunting, but have face and sides of neck grey, also suggesting Dunnock.
Photo © by Panu Ruangjan
Nam Kham Nature Reserve, Thailand, February 2007
Distribution
Eastern Europe and Asia
Eastern Europe: Finland
Asia: Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, Tibet, Nepal, India, eastern and western Himalayas, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong
Southeast Asia: Indochina, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand
Taxonomy
Masked Bunting was formerly included here.
Subspecies
Clements recognizes these subspecies[1]:
- E. s. spodocephala:
- E. s. sordida:
Habitat
Reedbeds and wetland scrub. Dense undergrowth beside streams and rivers in taiga areas. Also on farmland, close to water.
Behaviour
Breeding
They build a nest in a tree or on the ground. The clutch consists of 4-5 eggs. There is generally a second brood.
Diet
The diet consists mostly of seeds; the young are fed insects.
Movements
Northern continental population is a long-distance migrant wintering south to southern Korea, eastern and southern China and Taiwan. It is a very rare wanderer to western Europe. Southern continental population disperses widely south-west and east wintering from Bangladesh and eastern Nepal east through northern Burma to extreme north of Thailand (rare), northern Laos and northern Vietnam.
Vocalisations
Call a hard tsip or jit. Song is a slow tsip-chee-tree phirr.
Recording by Sid Francis, Jiuzaighou, Sichuan, China June 2011
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
- Avibase
- Birdforum thread with discussion and pictures of younger Black-faced Bunting
- del Hoyo, J., Collar, N. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Masked Bunting (Emberiza personata). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/1344137 on 3 February 2019).
- Copete, J.L. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Black-faced Bunting (Emberiza spodocephala). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/61896 on 3 February 2019).
- Wikipedia contributors. (2018, September 30). Black-faced bunting. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:57, February 3, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Black-faced_bunting&oldid=861846535
- Byers, C., J. Curson, and U. Olsson. 1995. Sparrows and Buntings: A Guide to the Sparrows and Buntings of North America and the World. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.
- Päckert, M., Sun, Y.-H., Strutzenberger, P., Valchuk, O., Tietze, D.T. & Martens, J. (2015) Phylogenetic relationships of endemic bunting species (Aves, Passeriformes, Emberizidae, Emberiza) from the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Vert. Zool. 65(1): 135–150.
- Saitoh, T., Sugita, N., Someya, S., Iwami, Y., Kobayashi, S., Kamigaichi, H., Higuchi, A., Asai, S., Yamamoto, Y. & Nishiumi, I. (2015) DNA barcoding reveals 24 distinct lineages as cryptic bird species candidates in and around the Japanese Archipelago. Mol. Ecol. Res. 15(1): 177–186.
- Weissensteimer, M.H., Koblmüller, S. & Sefc, K.M. (2014) The Emberiza spodocephala subspecies complex: new insights into taxonomy and phylogeography. 26th International Ornithological Congress 2014, Tokyo, 18-24 Aug 2014.
- Brazil, M. (2018). Birds of Japan. Helm, London. ISBN 978-1-4729-1386-9
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Black-faced Bunting. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 January 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Black-faced_Bunting
External Links
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