Yellow-Breasted Bunting

The yellow-breasted bunting (Emberiza aureola) is a passerine bird that is found around the Boreal and East Palearctic in the bunting family Emberizidae. The name of the genus Emberiza originates from the Old German Embritz, a bunting. Latin for "golden" is the same aureola. The call of the bird is a recognizable zick, and the melody is a definite tru-tru, tri-tri.

Over a very wide area of 15,700,000 square kilometers, the Yellow-breasted Bunting breeds Historically, in southern Finland, most of Russia, and portions of northern Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China, and Japan, it breeds in wet second growth, riparian areas, and wet meadows with heavy vegetation. In northern India and Nepal, in southern China, and most of southeast Asia, it winters in rice fields and other grasslands. It has also happened as an Alaska vagrant. 

This species has declined or vanished from many areas, despite its wide range, most likely due to excessive trapping of many thousands of individuals during migration and at wintering sites.

Range and Habitat

Yellow-breasted Bunting: native to Eurasia; includes Finland, Belarus and Ukraine in the west, via Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, far east Russia, Korea and north Japan; visits to the western Aleutian Islands are allowed in spring. Breeds with heavy trees and sparse forest, riverside, and woods in moist meadows; winters in agricultural areas, rice fields, reed beds, and grasslands.