The Pallas's reed bunting (''Emberiza pallasi''), also known as Pallas's bunting, 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 generally have an anisodactyl arrangement of their ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the

Emberiza The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the Family (biology), family Emberizidae. The family contains 44 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy Th ...

family, Emberizidae. Most modern authors now separate this group from the

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches generally have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where the ...

es, Fringillidae.

Taxonomy

The bird family

Emberizidae The buntings are a group of Old World passerine birds forming the genus ''Emberiza'', the only genus in the family Emberizidae. The family contains 44 species. They are seed-eating birds with stubby, conical bills. Taxonomy The family Emberizid ...

contains around 300 seed-eating species, most of which are found in the Americas. The genus ''

'', with more than 40 members, is confined to the Old World. Within the genus ''

'', the Pallas's reed bunting is most closely related to the

Japanese reed bunting The ochre-rumped bunting (''Emberiza yessoensis''), also known as the Japanese reed bunting, is a bird in the family Emberizidae. The species was first described as ''Schoenicola yessoensis'' by Robert Swinhoe in 1874. The species epithet, ''yes ...

and the

reed bunting The common reed bunting (''Emberiza schoeniclus'') is a passerine bird in the Emberiza, bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name ''Emberiza'' is from Old High German, ...

, sometimes classified in the genus Schoeniclus. The genus name ''Emberiza'' comes from the

Old German Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

word ''Embritz'', meaning "bunting". The English name and the specific ''pallasii'' commemorate German naturalist and explorer

Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussia, Prussian zoologist, botanist, Ethnography, ethnographer, Exploration, explorer, Geography, geographer, Geology, geologist, Natura ...

. It breeds across northern and central Asia to Mongolia. It is a migrant species, wintering in southeast Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, but has occurred as far west as

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognised: ''E. p. polaris'', which occurs in most of northeast

European Russia European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...

and north

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

and winters in eastern China; ''E. p. pallasi'', which is found in

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

and

Transbaikalia Transbaikal, Trans-Baikal, Transbaikalia ( rus, Забайка́лье, r=Zabaykal'ye, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲjɪ), or Dauria (, ''Dauriya'') is a mountainous region to the east of or "beyond" (trans-) Lake Baikal at the south side of the eastern Si ...

and winters in west and north China; and ''E. p. lydiae'', which occurs in south Siberia and northern Mongolia and winters in north China.

Habitat

It is common in

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

scrub by water, and also breeds in drier open areas such as open

larch Larches are deciduous conifers in the genus ''Larix'', of the family Pinaceae (subfamily Laricoideae). Growing from tall, they are native to the cooler regions of the northern hemisphere, where they are found in lowland forests in the high la ...

forest.

Description

The Pallas's reed bunting is a small passerine bird, similar to a small

and possesses a small seed-eater's bill. The male has a black head and throat, a white neck collar and underparts, and a heavily streaked grey back (the reed bunting has a browner back). The female is much duller, with a streaked brown head, and is less streaked below than the female reed bunting. The song of the male is a repetitive ''sherp''.

Behaviour

Its natural diet consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds.

Breeding

Breeding occurs between June and August, earlier in the north of its range. The nest, typically made from grasses and sedges, is in a bush and lined with finer materials such as smaller grasses and hair. The bunting lays 3–5 cream-colored eggs, which show the hair-like markings characteristic of bunting eggs. The incubation period is 11 days.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1314178 Pallas's reed bunting Birds of North Asia Birds of Mongolia Pallas's reed bunting Pallas's reed bunting