Red-headed Bunting

The red-headed bunting is a passerine of the bunting family, 17 cm long, larger than a reed bunting, with a long tail. The breeding male has bright yellow underparts, green upperparts and a brownish-red face and breast. It breeds in open scrubby areas including agricultural land in central Asia, in Afghanistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and China, and is migratory, wintering in India and Bangladesh (Wikipedia, general species account).

It lays three to five eggs in a nest in a tree or bush, and its natural food is seeds, or insects when feeding young. Its status in western Europe, where it is a vagrant, has been confused by escapes from captivity. 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 389,000 km², a decline of about 47% over the long term and an inconclusive current trend of about +21% a year (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).