Yellow-browed Bunting

Yellow-Browed Bunting
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Aves Order: Passeriformes Family: Emberizidae Genus: Emberiza Species: chrysophrys
Binomial name
Emberiza chrysophrys

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

It breeds in eastern Siberia, and is migratory, wintering in central and southern China. It is a very rare wanderer to western Europe.

Yellow-Browed Bunting breeds in the taiga zone, and lays four eggs in a tree nest. Its natural food consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds.

This bird is smaller than a Reed Bunting, but relatively large-headed. The upperparts are brown and heavily streaked, and the underparts are white with an orange hue on the flanks and some fine dark streaks. The stout bill is pink.

The breeding male has a black head with white crown and moustachial stripes and throat. There is a bright yellow eyebrow stripe. Females and young birds have a weaker head pattern, with brown instead of black, and can be confused with Little Bunting. However, there is always some yellow in the eyebrow, and indications of the white crown stripe.