Emberiza capensis
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
The Cape bunting (Emberiza capensis) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape bunting in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected at the Cape of Good Hope. He used the French name L'ortolan du Cap de Bonne Espérance and the Latin Hortulanus capitis bonae spei. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the Cape bunting. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Emberiza capensis and cited Brisson's work. Linnaeus had introduced the genus Emberiza in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. The specific name capensis is used to denote the Cape of Good Hope.
Eleven subspecies are recognised: Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden Gate Highlands National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Table Mountain National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cape Town | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Bunting sighting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, based on 1,120 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 54th most-seen of the 223 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February and June
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Bunting in Table Mountain National Park on a given day, against about 10% in March–May and July–January, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Cape 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.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Cape Bunting sightings, Table Mountain National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 60%), West Coast National Park (South Africa, about 40%) and De Hoop Nature Reserve (South Africa, about 30%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cape Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in Table Mountain National Park (1,120 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.
