The yellow-browed bunting is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern taxonomists from the finches (Fringillidae). The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific chrysophrys is from Ancient Greek khrusophrus, "golden-browed".
Region
Northeast Asia
Typical Environment
Breeds in the Russian Far East with local populations in northeastern China and possibly North Korea, favoring forest edges, riverine thickets, and scrubby clearings. In winter it moves to eastern China, the Korean Peninsula, and occasionally Japan and Taiwan. It occupies dense undergrowth, bamboo and brushy ravines, and weedy field margins. The species forages mostly on or near the ground in leaf litter and low cover. Vagrants are rarely recorded farther west.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 1500 m
Climate Zone
Temperate
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
A small Eurasian bunting, the yellow-browed bunting is named for its distinctive golden-yellow eyebrow stripe. It breeds in the Russian Far East and adjacent Northeast Asia and winters farther south in East Asia. Like many buntings, it feeds mainly on seeds but switches to insects in the breeding season. The genus name Emberiza derives from an Old German word for bunting, and chrysophrys means 'golden-browed' in Greek.
Emberiza chrysophrys MHNT
Temperament
shy and skulking
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats with undulating flights
Social Behavior
Breeds in pairs with the male singing from low perches or shrub tops. The nest is usually on or near the ground in dense cover, and the clutch typically contains 3–5 eggs. Outside the breeding season it forms small, loose flocks that forage quietly in thickets and weedy fields.
Migratory Pattern
Seasonal migrant
Song Description
The song is a soft, tinkling series of notes delivered from a low perch, simple and slightly metallic. Calls include thin tsit and tsee contact notes given while foraging or in flight.
Plumage
Crisply patterned bunting with streaked brown upperparts and pale underparts lightly streaked on the flanks. Males in breeding plumage show a bright yellow supercilium, contrasting dark eye-stripe and crown accents, and two pale wing bars. Females and nonbreeding birds are duller with a more muted yellow eyebrow and more diffuse head pattern.
Diet
Consumes grass and weed seeds for most of the year. During the breeding season it supplements its diet with insects, spiders, and other small invertebrates to meet higher protein needs. Juveniles are fed a higher proportion of insects. It also picks small seeds from seedheads and the ground.
Preferred Environment
Forages on the ground in leaf litter, along trails and forest edges, and in brushy fields with seed-rich weeds. In winter it frequents bamboo thickets, hedgerows, and scrub near farmland and villages.
