Buntings and New World Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Crested Bunting (Melophus lathami) - HBW 16, p. 508

French: Bruant huppé German: Haubenammer Spanish: Escribano Crestado

Taxonomy: Emberiza lathami J. E. Gray, 1831, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
No obvious affinities. Recent molecular studies suggest that genus is very close to Emberiza, and may be better subsumed within it; on the other hand, striking plumage features, especially of male, favour retention of a monotypic genus. Quite marked difference between shiny blue-black and rusty-chestnut males in W part of range (India) and dull brownish-black and orange-rufous males in E China, but extensive intervening areas inhabited by intermediates; Indian populations sometimes separated as race subcristata (described from the Deccan, in SC India), but delimitation of any cle.. View all taxonomy...

Distribution: S slopes of Himalayas from NE Pakistan (Murree) E to NE India (Assam, Meghalaya and Manipur), also C India (from E Rajasthan, S Gujarat, SW Maharashtra, N Andhra Pradesh and E Madhya Pradesh E to S Bihar), and S China (from Red Basin of Sichuan E, chiefly S of 30° N, to Anhui and Zhejiang, S to Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangdong) S to Myanmar, N & C Laos and N Vietnam (Tonkin). Also W & NW Thailand in non-breeding season.