Emberiza rutila
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5% in a week ~10%
The chestnut bunting (Emberiza rutila) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae found in the East Palearctic. It is a fairly small bunting, 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) in length. The tail is fairly short with little or no white on the outer feathers. Breeding males have bright chestnut-brown upperparts and head. The breast and belly are yellow with streaks on the sides. Non-breeding males are similar but duller with the chestnut partly hidden by pale fringes to the feathers. The female is mostly dull brown with dark streaks above while the underparts are mainly pale yellow. The rump is dull chestnut and the throat is buff.
The variable, high-pitched song is given from a perch low in a tree. The call is a short zick, similar to the call of the little bunting. It breeds in Siberia, northern Mongolia and north-eastern China. It is a long-distance migrant, wintering in southern China, south-east Asia and north-east India. There are a number of records from Europe but some of these are considered to be escapes from captivity rather than genuine vagrants.
During the breeding season it inhabits open forest with plenty... Wikipedia →
Recording0:18
Russia · 2013
© Sergey_Cher · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Namdapha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut Bunting sighting in Namdapha National Park on a given day, based on 11 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 254th most-seen of the 298 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.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut Bunting in Namdapha National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season. June to September have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut 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.
Only Namdapha National Park, in our data
Namdapha National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Chestnut Bunting sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Namdapha National Park (11 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.
