Black-faced Bunting

The black-faced bunting is similar in size to a reed bunting at about 16 cm long, with a stout pink bill. Its general appearance and terrestrial feeding habits give the impression of a dunnock with a bunting's bill. The breeding male has a dark grey head with a mix of yellow-green and black between the bill and eye, and heavily black-streaked brown upperparts except on the rump; females and young birds have a weaker head pattern with olive-grey cheeks and a weak creamy-white eyebrow (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in southern Siberia across to northern China, in dense undergrowth along streams and rivers in the taiga, and is migratory, wintering in north-east India, southern China and northern south-east Asia. Four or five eggs are laid in a ground or tree nest. The call is a metallic tzii or tzee, very short and hardly a song. SoIB 2023 rates it a Moderate conservation priority, a winter migrant of wetland that eats invertebrates, with a Restricted range of about 27,500 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).