Bird watching/ birding in Japan

Meadow Bunting or Siberian Meadow Bunting, Emberiza cioides, ホオジロ

The Meadow Bunting or Siberian Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides) is a passerine bird of eastern Asia which belongs to the genus Emberiza in the bunting family Emberizidae.

Range map from www.oiseaux.net - Ornithological Portal Oiseaux.net

www.oiseaux.net is one of those MUST visit pages if you're in to bird watching. You can find just about everything there

Description
The meadow bunting is 15 to 16.5 cm long. The male is mostly rufous-brown with dark streaks on the back. The boldly-patterned head is brown with white eyebrows, moustachial stripe and throat and grey sides to the neck. The outer tail-feathers are white and the legs are pinkish-brown. Females are similar but are duller and paler with a less well-defined head pattern.

Length:

17 cm

Wingspan:

cm

Weight:

17 - 26 g

Longevity:

-

Distinctive Feature

• White moustachial stripe and throat

Similar Species

-

From opus at www.birdforum.net the forum for wild birds and birding.

The song is a short, hurried phrase given from a prominent perch. The call is a series of up to four sharp notes.

Listen to the Meadow Bunting

Sound from www.xeno-canto.org

Remarks from the Recordist

Recorded with my ZOOM H5 Handy recorder. High pass filter applied and "Crackle and poops" plus footsteps removed with audacity.

Lone male singing. MY second try with this bird and I managed to get a picture

It breeds in southern Siberia, northern and eastern China, eastern Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Korea and Japan. It is fairly non-migratory but northern birds move south as far as southern China and Taiwan. There are several records from Europe but many of these are considered to be escapes from captivity rather than genuine vagrants. It occurs in dry, open habitats such as scrub, farmland, grassland and open woodland.

Emberiza cioides MHNT

By Didier Descouens - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25613654

The nest is built low in bushes or on the ground. Three to five eggs are laid and are incubated for 11 days. The young birds fledge after another 11 days. Pairs are monogamous and use the same area for breeding several years in a row.

Conservation status

Least Concern IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2.
International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia