Little Bunting

Little Bunting (Emberiza pusilla) is a tiny bunting with a chestnut face and cheeks, bold pale eye-ring and dark crown stripes above a streaked brown body. Body shape, bill structure, plumage pattern and voice provide the strongest field characters. Age, sex and season may alter its appearance, so identification should combine several features and careful direct field comparisons with similar species in the same habitat (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in northern Eurasian scrub and open forest, feeds on seeds and insects on the ground and migrates to southern Asia, often joining mixed bunting flocks outside breeding. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. Japanese records place it within the country's documented avifauna as a resident, migrant or visitor (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Japan occurrence records).