The Yellow-breasted Buntings, Emberiza aureola, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae.
Buntings
Distribution / Breeding:
It breeds in northeast Europe and across northern Asia. It is migratory, wintering in southeast Asia, India, and southern China. It is a rare but regular wanderer to Western Europe.
Yellow-Breasted Buntings breed in open scrubby areas, often near water, and it is very common in Siberia. It lays 4-6 eggs in a nest on the ground.
Diet / Feeding:
Its natural food consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds.
Description:
This bird is similar in size to a Reed Bunting but longer-billed. The breeding male has bright yellow underparts with black flank streaks, brown upperparts, a black face and throat bar, and a pink lower beak.
The female has a heavily streaked grey-brown back and less intensely yellow underparts. She has a whitish face with a dark crown, eye, and cheek stripes. The juvenile is similar, but the background color of the underparts and face is buff.
Call / Song:
The call is a distinctive zick, and the song is a clear tru-tru, tri-tri.
