Bulletin 308 - China #8 - Buntings and Sparrows

I had an 8 day birding to trip in eastern China with a wonderful guide Lin Zhang based in Shanghai. He is perfectly fluent in English. We visited 5 different locales. His website is here. FYI making contact within China by email is a problem as the government blocks some email accounts coming in including gmail.  So I had to contact him using MS Outlook. His email is zhanglinas@hotmail.com.

The buntings in the Old World are in the same family with our New World sparrows. A few of them show up in North America as vagrants. In general, these birds appear to be more brightly colored than our sparrows.

The 6" Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica) is in the Sibley guide as the only one to appear regularly in North America. The male has a mostly black head with a crest and white stripe above the eye.

Rustic Bunting - male

The female has a dark brown face rather than black.

Rustic Bunting - female

The 6" Yellow-throated Bunting (Emberiza elegans) is also known as the Elegant Bunting. the male has a yellow and black face with a black crest.

Yellow-throated Bunting - male
AKA Elegant Bunting

The 5.5" Black-faced Bunting (Emberiza spodocephala) has a grey hood and black face in breeding plumage. They have yellow underparts, This one still has some brown on his face and is not completely molted.

Black-faced Bunting - male

The 6" Chestnut-eared Bunting (Emberiza fucata) is all brown with a chestnut patch on the side of the face.

Chestnut-eared Bunting

The 5" Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) has a chestnut face bordered behind with black.

Little Bunting

The male 6" Pallas's Reed Bunting (Emberiza pallasi) is black and white in breeding plumage. This one still is not fully molted as appears brownish.

Pallas's Reed Bunting - male

The last is the striking 7" Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides). This cooperative bird sat on a bare branch and sang continuously and allowed me to approach closely for a photo.

Meadow Bunting - male

Lastly I photographed 2 sparrows. The Old World Sparrows are in a different family, although they look the same as small brown birds. The 5.5" Eurasian Tree Sparrow (Passer montanus) is brown with a black throat and a black spot behind the ear.

Eurasian Tree Sparrow

The 5" Russet Sparrow (Passer rutilans) is redder but similar and he lacks the black ear spot.

Russet Sparrow - male

I have put the different bird families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 76 of the 187 species of New World sparrows and buntings.

I have photos of 3 of the 51 species of Old World sparrows.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2018 David McDonald

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