Emberiza rustica
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The rustic bunting (Emberiza rustica) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific rustica is Latin for "rustic, simple".
The rustic bunting was first formally Species description described in 1776 by the Prussian naturalist and explorer Peter Simon Pallas with Dauria give as the type locality. This species is classified in the genus Emberiza, the typical buntings, in the family Emberizidae. Within Emberiza the rustic bunting is sister to the little bunting (E. pusilla).
There are two subspecies: Emberiza rustica rustica: breeds in the taiga over most of Eurasia from Scandinavia to Siberia. Emberiza rustica latifascia: breeds in far eastern Siberia from Yakutsk to Kamchatka. It breeds across the northern Palearctic. It is migratory, wintering in south-east Asia, Japan, Korea, and eastern China. It is a rare wanderer to western Europe.
It breeds in wet coniferous woodland. Four to six eggs are laid in a nest in a bush or on the ground. Its natural food consists of seeds, and when feeding young, insects. This bird is similar in size to a reed bunting. It has white underparts with reddish flank, pink legs and a pink lower mandible. The summer male has a black head with a white throat and supercilium and a reddish breast band.
The female has a heavily streaked brown back and brown face with a whitish supercilium. She resembles a female reed bunting, but has the reddish flank streaks, a chestnut nape and a pink, not grey, lower mandible. The call is a zit, similar to that of a song thrush (Turdus philomelos), and the song is a melancholic delee-deloo-delee. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Rustic Bunting sighting in Nikko National Park on a given day, based on 22 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 75th most-seen of the 102 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November and December
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Rustic Bunting in Nikko National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February and May–September, the lowest months.
Only Nikko National Park, in our data
Nikko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Rustic Bunting sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Emberiza
The closest relatives of the Rustic Bunting that you can see in Nikko National Park (genus Emberiza, Old World Buntings) are Masked Bunting (about 40%), 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 Rustic Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Nikko National Park (22 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.
