Buntings, Zhejiang, China (1 Viewer)

I did think I was getting the hang of the local bunting options in eastern China but I'm getting myself confused again. I came across a flock of buntings in agricultural lowland Zhejiang province. I initially took them to be yellow-browed but I don't remember them be quite so rufous. I'm now wondering whether they are rustic buntings instead, or a mix of the two. Looking at Brazil and Collins the grey stripes on the back are pro-yellow-browed whilst the rufous rump and nape are pro-rustic. It doesn't help that all the buntings are between plumages at the moment; I'm feel like these two should be easy! The four pictures are probably of 4 different birds as a random sample of the least awful pictures I got.

Michael

Not totally sure on 2 but would say Rustic Bunting on the other three.

All Rustic Bunting, I think, too.

Thanks both. I wonder if this is one I've been getting wrong often... Some have definitely been yellow-browed but not all are obvious.

These are all Rustic Bunting for me as well - strong rufous tones to the rump and nape, broad rufous streaks on the flanks, and broad white supercilium.

My (fairly limited) experience of these in China is that Yellow-browed is a slightly shyer bird, often staying close to the edges of woodland, whereas Rustic can more often be found in more open paddies.

That certainly describes where this flock was and, for that matter, where I have seen yellow-browed previously.

johnallcock said:

These are all Rustic Bunting for me as well - strong rufous tones to the rump and nape, broad rufous streaks on the flanks, and broad white supercilium.

My (fairly limited) experience of these in China is that Yellow-browed is a slightly shyer bird, often staying close to the edges of woodland, whereas Rustic can more often be found in more open paddies.

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Dawsy said:

Thanks both. I wonder if this is one I've been getting wrong often... Some have definitely been yellow-browed but not all are obvious.

Click to expand...

First-year Rustic Buntings seem to have yellow brows - rather in the way that first-year White Wagtails have a yellow brow and throat.