Emberiza personata
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The masked bunting (Emberiza personata) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is found in Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Japan. The masked bunting was formerly considered as a subspecies of the black-faced bunting (Emberiza spodocephala) but is now treated as a separate species based on morphological and genetic differences. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ueno Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan | |
| 2 | Inokashira Park Zoo | 🇯🇵 Japan |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Masked Bunting sighting in Nikko National Park on a given day, based on 163 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 17th most-seen of the 102 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May to July
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Masked Bunting in Nikko National Park on a given day, against about 10% in March, the lowest month.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Masked 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.
Only Nikko National Park, in our data
Nikko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Masked Bunting sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Emberiza
The closest relatives of the Masked Bunting that you can see in Nikko National Park (genus Emberiza, Old World Buntings) are Meadow Bunting (about 30%) and Chestnut-eared Bunting (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Masked Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Nikko National Park (163 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.
