Black-faced Bunting

Black-faced Bunting
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Emberizidae Genus: Emberiza Species: spodocephala
Binomial name
Emberiza spodocephala

The Black-faced Bunting , Emberiza spodocephala , is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae.

It breeds in southern Siberia across to northern China and northern Japan. It is migratory, wintering northeast India, southern China and northern southeast Asia. It is a very rare wanderer to western Europe.

Black-faced Bunting breeds in dense undergrowth along streams and rivers in the taiga zone, and lays four or five eggs in a ground or tree nest. Its natural food consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds. It winters close to water in agricultural or other open bushy habitats.

This bird is similar in size to a Reed Bunting. The breeding male has a grey head with black between the bill and eye. The upperparts are brown and heavily streaked, except on the rump, and the underparts are yellowish white with some fine dark flank streaks. The stout bill is pink.

Females and young birds have a weaker head pattern, with olive-grey cheeks and a weak whitish supercilium. This bird's general appearance and terrestrial feeding habits give the impression of a Dunnock with a bunting's bill.