Ochre-rumped Bunting

Ochre-rumped Bunting (Emberiza yessoensis) is a small reedland bunting with dark-streaked brown upperparts, pale underparts and a warm ochre-buff rump. 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 occurs in Manchuria, Korea and East Asia, inhabiting swamps and temperate grasslands, where it feeds on seeds and insects close to the ground and nests in dense wet vegetation. 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).