Emberiza capensis
Silhouette: L. Shyamal · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
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 |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Bunting sighting in West Coast National Park on a given day, based on 609 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 49th most-seen of the 192 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.
September
In that month about 60% of wildlife watchers report a Cape Bunting in West Coast National Park on a given day, against about 10% in January, the lowest month.
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.
2nd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Cape Bunting sightings, West Coast National Park ranks 2nd at about 40%. The best odds are in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 60%).
Same order: Passeriformes
The closest relatives of the Cape Bunting that you can see in West Coast National Park (order Passeriformes, Perching Birds) are Cape Wagtail (about 70%), Cape Bulbul (about 70%) and Karoo Prinia (about 70%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Cape Bunting is recorded against all the birds logged in West Coast National Park (609 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.
