The chestnut bunting (''Emberiza rutila'') is a

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the

bunting Bunting may refer to: Animals Birds * Bunting (bird) or Emberizidae, a family of Eurasian and African passerine birds * New World buntings or ''Passerina'', a genus of American passerine birds in the family Cardinalidae * Blue bunting, a species ...

family Emberizidae found in the East

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

. It is a fairly small bunting, 14 to 15 cm in length. The tail is fairly short with little or no white on the outer feathers. Breeding males have bright chestnut-brown upperparts and head. The breast and belly are yellow with streaks on the sides. Non-breeding males are similar but duller with the chestnut partly hidden by pale fringes to the feathers. The female is mostly dull brown with dark streaks above while the underparts are mainly pale yellow. The rump is dull chestnut and the throat is buff. The variable, high-pitched

song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...

is given from a perch low in a tree. The call is a short ''zick'', similar to the call of the

little bunting The little bunting (''Emberiza pusilla'') is a passerine bird belonging to the bunting family (Emberizidae). Taxonomy First described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1776, the little bunting is a monotypic species, with no geographical variation acros ...

. It breeds in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, northern Mongolia and north-eastern China. It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in southern China, south-east Asia and north-east India. There are a number of records from Europe but some of these are considered to be escapes from captivity rather than genuine vagrants. During the breeding season it inhabits open forest with plenty of ground cover and shrubs. Wintering and migrating birds occur in farmland, scrub and woodland edges.

References

*Lee, Woo-Shin, Koo, Tae-Hoe & Park, Jin-Young (2000) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of Korea'', LG Evergreen Foundation, Seoul. *Lewington, Ian; Alström, Per & Colston, Peter (1991) ''A Field Guide to the Rare Birds of Britain and Europe'', HarperCollins. *MacKinnon, John & Phillipps, Karen (2000) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of China'', Oxford University Press, Oxford. *Robson, Craig (2002) ''A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia''. New Holland, London. *Snow, D. W. & Perrins, C. M. (1998) ''Birds of the Western Palearctic: Concise Edition'', Vol. 2, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

External links

Oriental Bird Images: chestnut bunting
{{Taxonbar, from=Q427182 chestnut bunting Birds of Manchuria Birds of Mongolia chestnut bunting