Rustic bunting
| Rustic bunting | |
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| Species: | E. rustica
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| Binomial name | |
| Emberiza rustica Pallas, 1776
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The rustic bunting (Emberiza rustica) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific rustica is Latin for "rustic, simple".[2]
It breeds across northern Europe and Asia. It is migratory, wintering in south-east Asia, Japan, and eastern China. It is a rare wanderer to western Europe.
It breeds in wet coniferous woodland. Four to six eggs are laid in a nest in a bush or on the ground. Its natural food consists of seeds, and when feeding young, insects.
This bird is similar in size to a reed bunting. It has white underparts with reddish flank, pink legs and a pink lower mandible. The summer male has a black head with a white throat and supercilium and a reddish breast band.
The female has a heavily streaked brown back and brown face with a whitish supercilium. She resembles a female reed bunting, but has the reddish flank streaks, a chestnut nape and a pink, not grey, lower mandible.
The call is a distinctive zit, and the song is a melancholic delee-deloo-delee.
References
- ^ Template:IUCN
- ^ Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, United Kingdom: Christopher Helm. pp. 145, 344. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
External links
- OBC 11 photographs (see pulldown menu at page bottom)