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Black-headed Bunting

Black-headed Bunting

Emberiza melanocephala

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The Black-headed Bunting is a striking open-country songbird that breeds from south-eastern Europe east to Iran and winters mainly in India. Breeding males combine a black hood, bright yellow underparts and a chestnut back, while females and juveniles are duller and resemble Red-headed Buntings. It forms large flocks outside the breeding season and is common in farmland and grassland. In northern Iran it overlaps and hybridises with the Red-headed Bunting.

Did you know?

  • Unlike many of its relatives it moults twice a year – once in the wintering area before spring migration and again after breeding.
  • A ringed Black-headed Bunting was recorded migrating about 7,000 km.

Voice

Song

About the species

Identification

Yellowhammer-sized (15.5–17.5 cm). The breeding male has a black head, bright yellow underparts and a chestnut back and rump; females and young are yellowish below, with a greyish head and darker upperparts. It resembles Red-headed Bunting: males differ in head colour, but females are very similar and best identified with care or alongside males.

Family

Emberizidae

Size

Small (sparrow)

Colours

yellow, black, brown

About the habitat

Open, scrubby country, vineyards, olive groves, orchards, hedgerows, farmland edges and riverbanks; in winter grasslands and farm fields.

Diet

Mainly seeds and grain taken on the ground; in summer also insects and other invertebrates, especially for the young.

Behaviour

Often perches on bushes or wires to sing a loud, jangling series that ends abruptly. Gregarious outside the breeding season; males may migrate in all-male flocks and reach wintering areas before females. It nests in a low bush or on the ground in a cup of dry grass lined with hair, and in winter often roosts communally in thorny acacias.

Sources

Photo: Mark S Jobling, CC BY 3.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:28-090504-black-headed-bunting-at-first-layby.jpg

Sound: Pascal Christe, XC1142807, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/1142807

Text: Wikipedia (English) + GBIF regional observations + Wikipedia (Finnish), CC BY-SA 4.0; GBIF occurrence data; Wikipedia: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-headed_bunting

See also