Yellow-breasted Bunting
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| iYellow-Breasted Bunting Conservation status: Near threatened |
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| Emberiza aureola Pallas, 1773 |
The Yellow-Breasted Bunting, Emberiza aureola, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae.
It breeds in northeast Europe and across northern Asia. It is migratory, wintering in southeast Asia, India, and southern China. It is a rare but regular wanderer to western Europe.
Yellow-Breasted Bunting breeds in open scrubby areas, often near water, and it is very common in Siberia. It lays 4-6 eggs in a nest on the ground. Its natural food consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds.
This bird is similar in size to a Reed Bunting, but longer-billed. The breeding male has bright yellow underparts with black flank streaks, brown upperparts, black face and throat bar, and a pink lower mandible.
The female has a heavily streaked grey-brown back, and less intensely yellow underparts. She has a whitish face with dark crown, eye and cheek stripes. The juvenile is similar, but the background colour of the underparts and face is buff.
The call is a distinctive zick, and the song is a clear tru-tru, tri-tri.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Emberiza aureola. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened
