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Emberiza pusilla

Emberiza pusilla (*)

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Passeriformes
Subordo: Passeri
Parvordo: Passerida
Superfamilia: Passeroidea
Familia: Emberizidae
Genus: Emberiza
Species: Emberiza pusilla

Name

Emberiza pusilla Pallas, 1776

Vernacular names
Internationalization
Български: Малка овесарка
Deutsch: Zwergammer
Ελληνικά : Νανοτσίχλονο
English: Little Bunting
日本語: コホオアカ
Lietuvių: Mažoji starta
Svenska: Dvärgsparv


Reference

Reise durch verschiedene Provinzen des Russischen Reichs 3 p.697

The Little Bunting, Emberiza pusilla, is a passerine bird. It belongs to the bunting and American sparrow family (Emberizidae), a group separated by most modern authors from the true finches (Fringillidae).

Description

This is a small bunting at 12-13.5 cm in length. It has a heavily streaked brown back and white underparts with fine dark streaking. With its chestnut face and white malar stripe, it resembles a small female Reed Bunting, but has black crown stripes, a white eye-ring, and a fine dark border to the rear of its chestnut cheeks. Sexes are similar.

The call is a distinctive zik, and the song is a rolling siroo-sir-sir-siroo.

Ecology

The Little Bunting breeds across the taiga of the far northeast of Europe and northern Asia. It is migratory, wintering in the subtropics in northern India, southern China and the northern parts of southeast Asia. The birds remain in their winter quarters for quite long; specimens were taken in Yunnan in late March[1]. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe. This species is adaptable; in the mountains of Bhutan for example, where small numbers winter, it is typically found in agricultural habitat, mostly between 1,000 and 2,000 m ASL[2].

It breeds in open coniferous woodland, often with some birch or willow. 4-6 eggs are laid in a tree nest. Its natural food consists of insects when feeding young, and otherwise seeds.

A common and widely-ranging species, it is not considered threatened by the IUCN.[3]

Footnotes

1. ^ Bangs (1932)
2. ^ Inskipp et al. (2000)
3. ^ IUCN (2008)

References

* Bangs, Outram (1932): Birds of western China obtained by the Kelley-Roosevelts expedition. Field Mus. Nat. Hist. Zool. Ser. 18(11): 343-379. Fulltext at the Internet Archive
* BirdLife International (BLI) (2008). Emberiza pusilla. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 23 May 2009.
* Inskipp, Carol; Inskipp, Tim & Sherub (2000): The ornithological importance of Thrumshingla National Park, Bhutan. Forktail 14: 147-162. PDF fulltext

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