Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Chestnut-eared Bunting (Emberiza fucata) - HBW 16, p. 523

French: Bruant à oreillons German: Bandammer Spanish: Escribano Orejudo
Other common names: Grey-headed/Grey-hooded Bunting

Taxonomy: Emberiza fucata Pallas, 1776, at Onon and Ingoda Rivers, near Chilka, Chita, south-eastern Siberia, Russia.
Recent phylogenetic analyses indicating that this species is sister of E. calandra considered unreliable, and not well supported in different analytical approaches in same study. Proposed race fluviatilis (described from Zhenjiang, in Jiangsu, in E China) treated as synonymous with kuatunensis. Three subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution:

fucata Pallas, 1776 - breeds E Mongolia (including Khentii) and SE Transbaikalia E to SE Russia (Amurland, S Khabarovsk, S Ussuriland), NE China (Heilongjiang), Sakhalin I, Korea and Japan (S Kurils, and Hokkaido S to C Honshu); winters in S Japan (C Honshu S to Ryukyu Is), S Korea, S China, including Hainan, and Taiwan.
kuatunensis La Touche, 1925 - breeds E China (Zhejiang and Fujian); winters to SE China, Bangladesh, N & C Myanmar and N Indochina.
arcuata Sharpe, 1888 - breeds in Himalayas from N Pakistan E to W Nepal and S China (N Yunnan); winters lower in W Himalayas.