Black-headed Bunting

The black-headed bunting is a passerine of the bunting family, 15 cm long, larger than a reed bunting, with a long tail. Adult males are well marked with yellow underparts, a chestnut back and a black head; adult females in breeding plumage look like duller males, and in other plumages can be hard to separate from the closely related red-headed bunting, with which it hybridises naturally in the zone of overlap in northern Iran. It breeds in south-east Europe east to Iran and migrates in winter mainly to India, with some birds moving into south-east Asia, its winter range in India mainly in the west and north, extending south to northern Karnataka (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in open scrubby areas including agricultural land. Males form pure flocks during migration and arrive in the winter quarters well before the females, and in winter they form large communal roosts in thorny acacia trees, often with other species such as the yellow-throated sparrow. The longest migration noted from a ringed bird is about 7,000 km. The clutch is four to six eggs, hatching after about 13 days. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a winter migrant of open habitat that eats plants and seeds, with a Large range of about 492,000 km² (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).