Pallas's Bunting

About the Pallas's Bunting

Pallas's reed bunting (Emberiza pallasi), also known as Pallas's bunting, is a passerine bird in the Old World bunting family, Emberizidae. The bird family Emberizidae contains around 300 seed-eating species, most of which are found in the Americas. The genus Emberiza, with more than 40 members, is confined to the Old World. Within the genus Emberiza, Pallas's reed bunting is most closely related to the Japanese reed bunting and the reed bunting, sometimes classified in their own genus Schoeniclus.

The genus name Emberiza comes from the Old German word Embritz, meaning "bunting". The English name and the specific pallasii commemorate German naturalist and explorer Peter Simon Pallas. It breeds across northern and central Asia to Mongolia. It is a migrant species, wintering in southeast Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe, but has occurred as far west as Great Britain.

Three subspecies are recognised: E. p. polaris, which occurs in most of northeast European Russia and north Kamchatka and winters in eastern China; E. p. pallasi, which is found in Mongolia and Transbaikalia and winters in west and north China; and E. p. lydiae, which occurs... Wikipedia →