Emberiza melanocephala
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The black-headed bunting (Emberiza melanocephala) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It breeds in south-east Europe east to Iran and migrates in winter mainly to India, with some individuals moving further into south-east Asia. Like others in its family, it is found in open grassland habitats where they fly in flocks in search of grains and seed. Adult males are well marked with yellow underparts, chestnut back and a black head. Adult females in breeding plumage look like duller males. In other plumages, they can be hard to separate from the closely related red-headed bunting and natural hybridization occurs between the two species in the zone of overlap of their breeding ranges in northern Iran.
The black-headed bunting was formally described in 1769 by the Austrian naturalist Giovanni Antonio Scopoli under the binomial name Emberiza melanocephala. The type locality is Carniola in Slovenia. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting, and the specific melanocephala combines the Ancient Greek melas meaning "black", and kephale meaning "head".
This bird is 15... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chitwan National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 2 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karaj | 🇮🇷 Iran | |
| 2 | Vasai-Virar | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Istanbul | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 5 | Kathmandu | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Phnom Penh | 🇰🇭 Cambodia | |
| 7 | Antalya | 🇹🇷 Turkey | |
| 8 | Nagpur | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 9 | Indore | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 10 | Kalyan-Dombivli | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Bunting sighting in Kathmandu on a given day, based on 58 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 178th most-seen of the 312 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, and over a week to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Bunting in Kathmandu on a given day, against under 5% in November to September, the lowest months. That is one of Kathmandu's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain against 280 mm in July.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-headed 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.
5th of 14
Of the 14 cities where we can rate Black-headed Bunting sightings, Kathmandu ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Karaj (Iran, about 10%), Vasai-Virar (India, under 5%) and Kolkata (India, under 5%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-headed Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Kathmandu (58 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.
