Black-headed Bunting

Black-headed Bunting (Emberiza melanocephala) is a robust bunting whose breeding male has a black head, bright yellow underparts and chestnut back; females are duller. 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 open grassland from south-eastern Europe to Iran, searches in flocks for grain and seeds and migrates mainly to South Asia, sometimes continuing into Southeast Asia; it hybridises with red-headed bunting where ranges overlap. Its movements and social behaviour vary through the year, with breeding birds generally more dispersed and non-breeding birds gathering where food is concentrated. The Korean vertebrate catalogue used for this guide records the species in South Korea (Wikipedia, general species account; Wildlife of Korea occurrence records).