Emberiza aureola
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae that is found across the Boreal and East Palearctic. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific aureola is Latin for "golden". The bird's call is a distinctive zick, and the song is a clear tru-tru, tri-tri.
Until 2004, the International Union for Conservation of Nature considered the yellow-breasted bunting to be a species of least concern. Since 2004, it has been gradually upgraded to a status of Critically Endangered due to rapid drops in population sizes. It is subject to heavy hunting pressure in China, through which most specimens pass during migration.
The yellow-breasted bunting is a small passerine, ranging from 14 to 16 cm (5.5 to 6.3 in) in length, and weighing 17 to 26 g (0.6 to 0.9 oz). For a bunting, it is large and rather stocky. The breeding male has bright white underparts with black flank streaks, brown upperparts, black face and throat bar, and a pink lower mandible. The female has a heavily streaked grey-brown back, and less intensely yellow underparts. She has a whitish face with dark crown, eye and cheek stripes... Wikipedia →
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Russia · 2026
© naturalisttt · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Russia · 2026
© nadezhda_boiko · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
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Russia · 2025
© Сергей · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-breasted Bunting sighting in Beijing on a given day, based on 37 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 74th most-seen of the 324 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and September
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Yellow-breasted Bunting in Beijing on a given day, against under 5% in June–July and November–April, the lowest months. Those are among Beijing's wettest months, with about 85 mm of rain a month against almost none in January.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Yellow-breasted Bunting sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 7 cities where we can rate Yellow-breasted Bunting sightings, Beijing ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Kolkata (India, about 10%).
Same genus: Emberiza
The closest relatives of the Yellow-breasted Bunting that you can see in Beijing (genus Emberiza, Old World Buntings) are Little Bunting (about 20%), Yellow-throated Bunting (about 10%) and Pallas's Bunting (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Yellow-breasted Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Beijing (37 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
