Masked/Black-faced Bunting - Taipei, Taiwan; 3/25/2023 (1 Viewer)

[mattystouffer]

Hi all, looking for some help with identification of two buntings observed a couple of days ago in an agricultural area on the outskirts of Taipei. The male in particular struck me as significantly yellower below than most of the Black-faced Buntings I'm used to seeing around Taipei. I was also struck by the amount of yellow in the throat and submoustachial area, as well as the pale yellow line behind the eye. All of these features made me think Masked Bunting, but I'm not familiar with the species, and it would be a rarity in Taiwan. I'm even less certain on the ID for the female. Photos at this iNat link. TIA for any assistance!

 

[HouseCrow]

I should dive into the matter again before i say anything about the ID. I think though that adding the photos directly to the thread, would improve the chances of getting an answer.
GOod luck
cheers
Gerben

p.s. surely there is some info on occurrence of this species in Taiwan? I will have a look at it too as i had one of the duo in Ishigaki in march '20.

 

[mattystouffer]

Thanks

I should dive into the matter again before i say anything about the ID. I think though that adding the photos directly to the thread, would improve the chances of getting an answer.
GOod luck
cheers
Gerben

p.s. surely there is some info on occurrence of this species in Taiwan? I will have a look at it too as i had one of the duo in Ishigaki in march '20.

Thanks for your reply. Both species occur in Taiwan, but Black-faced Bunting is reasonably common on migration, uncommon to scarce at other times of year. Masked Bunting is an island-wide rarity with very few records, though it is probably overlooked due to its similarity to Black-faced Bunting and was also, until recently, treated as conspecific with Black-faced.

Fair point about adding photos for convenience. I've attached the images from the iNat link below.

 

[HouseCrow]

also maybe you should plow through this informative thread..which - warning - will leave you rather more confused about this ID than I suppose you would hope.

Black-faced Bunting, which subspecies? East of China.

Dear all, Kindly please help ID which subspecies of this Black-faced Bunting. Zhangjiagang city, Jiangsu, China. (East of China) Photo date: May-1,2022

www.birdforum.net

It did boggle my mind again so I don't expect to have a clearcut answer tonight ; )

cheers
Gerben

 

[Grahame Walbridge]

One must also take account that the underpart tone of Black-faced ssp. spodocephala varies clinally, whitest in the west any yellowest in the east (Amur and Ussiriland) which will likely only add to the confusion.

Personally, given the problems with seperation extralimitally, I don't see that you are going to be able to make a positive ID without much better quality images so they are safest logged as Black-faced/Masked IMO.

Grahame