Emberiza pusilla
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10%
The little bunting (Emberiza pusilla) is a passerine bird belonging to the bunting family (Emberizidae). First described by Peter Simon Pallas in 1776, the little bunting is a monotypic species, with no geographical variation across its extensive Palearctic range.
The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific pusilla is Latin for "very small". This is a small bunting, measuring only 12–14 cm (4.7–5.5 in) in length. It has white underparts with dark streaking on the breast and sides. With its chestnut face and white malar stripe, it resembles a small female reed bunting, but has black crown stripes, a white eye-ring, and a fine dark border to the rear of its chestnut cheeks. The sexes are similar.
The call is a distinctive zik, and the song is a rolling siroo-sir-sir-siroo. The little bunting breeds across the taiga of the far north-east of Europe and northern Eurosiberia to the Russian Far East. It is migratory, wintering in the subtropics in northern India, southern China and the northern parts of south-east Asia. The birds remain in their winter quarters for quite long; specimens were taken in Yunnan in late... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Manas National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Cuc Phuong National Park | 🇻🇳 Vietnam | |
| 4 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Taroko National Park | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 6 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beijing | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 2 | Shijiazhuang | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 3 | Taiyuan | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 4 | Novosibirsk | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 5 | Nanchang | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 6 | Changsha | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Tianjin | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 8 | Jinhua | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 9 | Jinan | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 10 | Ulaanbaatar | 🇲🇳 Mongolia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santillana Zoo | 🇪🇸 Spain |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Little Bunting sighting in Cuc Phuong National Park on a given day, based on 5 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 150th most-seen of the 159 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Bunting in Cuc Phuong National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–June and August–December, the lowest months. That is one of Cuc Phuong National Park's driest months, with about 80 mm of rain against 390 mm in August. July has too few records to rate.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little Bunting sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Little Bunting sightings, Cuc Phuong National Park ranks 3rd at under 5%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 10%) and Manas National Park (India, about 10%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Little Bunting that you can see in Cuc Phuong National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Pin-striped Tit-Babbler (about 60%), Fork-tailed Sunbird (about 60%) and White-bellied Yuhina (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Cuc Phuong National Park (5 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
