Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Black-faced Bunting (Emberiza spodocephala)

French: Bruant masqué German: Maskenammer Spanish: Escribano Enmascarado
Other common names: Grey-headed Black-faced Bunting; Masked Bunting (personata)

Taxonomy: Emberiza spodocephala Pallas, 1776, Daurian Range, southern Chita, south-eastern Siberia, Russia.
Sometimes placed in a separate genus, Ocyris. Recent phylogenetic study suggests that this species is closely related to E. pusilla, E. rustica, E. aureola, E. rutila and E. sulphurata, forming a subclade with them; it has been suggested that they form a polytomous group of species, probably the result of a rapid, “simultaneous” radiation. Distinctive race personata possibly represents a separate species; further study required. Nominate race exhibits slight clinal variation in colour, with increasing green on crown, nape and throat and more yellowish underparts from W to E, but individual variation also significant, and populations at extremes of cline not well differentiated; proposed races oligoxantha (described from Kuznetsk region of SC Siberia) and extremiorientis (from S Ussuriland) represent respective ends of this cline. Three subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

spodocephala Pallas, 1776 - breeds from C Siberia (Novokuznetsk and Krasnoyarsk) E to S coast of Sea of Okhotsk, N Sakhalin I and Sea of Japan coast, S to Sayan Mts, Altai, N Mongolia (Khentii Mts), Transbaikalia, NE China (Heilongjiang), SE Russia (Ussuriland) and N Korea; winters in S & E China (S Yunnan and Hainan E to Fujian) and Taiwan.
personata Temminck, 1836 - breeds S Sakhalin I, Kuril Is and Japan (Hokkaido S to C Honshu); winters from N Honshu S through Shikoku and Kyushu to Ryukyu Is and Izu Is.
sordida Blyth, 1845 - breeds EC China from N Gansu and NE Qinghai S to W Sichuan and N Yunnan (S to Yangtze Valley), E to N Hubei, and occasionally in C Guizhou and W Hunan; winters in area from C Nepal E to NE India, N Myanmar and N Indochina.