Alternative name: Common Reed Bunting
[ edit] Identification
14-16.5 cm (5Â½-6Â½ in)
Black head and throat, white neck collar and underparts, heavily streaked brown back, deeply notched tail with white edges.
In winter the black is obscured by rufous-buff edging.
The female and immature are much duller, though still heavily streaked, lacking the black head and white collar. A buff supercilium.
Legs reddish brown to black. Bill is dark and in most populations is small.
[ edit] Similar species
Pallas's Bunting from eastern Siberia looks similar. However it's smaller, longer-tailed, the plumage is generally paler and it has a pale rump.
[ edit] Distribution
Europe and northern Asia.
[ edit] Taxonomy
[ edit] Subspecies
Yatsu-higata mudflats, Tokyo,
, March 2018
There are 15 subspecies
E. s. schoeniclus: British Isles and north-western Europe to central Russia; winters to North Africa
E. s. witherbyi: Southern Portugal, coastal western Spain, France, Balearic Islands and Sardinia
E. s. intermedia: Italy and Sicily to southern Ukraine, Crimea and north-eastern Turkey
E. s. reiseri: Albania, Macedonia, and northern Greece
E. s. caspia: Eastern Caucasus to western and southern Iran, Syria, adjacent south-eastern Turkey and north-eastern Iraq
E. s. korejewi: Eastern Iran
E. s. pyrrhuloides: Caspian Sea to Kazakhstan, western Xinjiang and western Mongolia
E. s. passerina: North-western Siberia; winters to northern Xinjiang, Mongolia and northern Iran
E. s. parvirostris: Central Siberia and northern Mongolia; winters to northern China
E. s. pyrrhulina: Transbaikalia to Kamchatka, Kuril Island, Sakhalin, Hokkaido
E. s. pallidior: South-western Siberia; winters Caucasus to north-western India and Mongolia
E. s. minor: South-eastern Siberia and adjacent Manchuria
E. s. ukrainae: Southern Russia to northern Ukraine and Volga River; winters to Caucasus
E. s. incognita: Russia east of Volga to southern Urals, northern Kazakhstan; winters to north-western China
E. s. zaidamensis: Western China (Tsaidam basin in northern Qinghai)
[ edit] Habitat
Breeds in almost any kind of marshy place: reedbeds, river banks etc but in winter will be found on farmland, particularly stubble fields.
[ edit] Behaviour
Forms mixed flocks in winter with other buntings and finches.
[ edit] Flight
Erratic bursts of wing-beats.
Their diet consists mostly of seeds and other plant material with the addition of insects when feeding young.
[ edit] Breeding
They lay 4-7 eggs in a nest which is built in a bush or reeds
[ edit] Vocalisation
Song: repetitious "tseek, tseek, tseek, tissick".
Listen in an external program
[ edit] References
Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Birdwatchers Pocket Guide ISBN 1-85732-804-3
Collins Pocket Guide to British Birds 1966
Collins Field Guide 5th Edition
[ edit] External Links