📸 PhotoPhoto: Manshanta Ghimire · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Yellow-breasted Bunting
Schoeniclus aureolus (Yellow-breasted Bunting · シマアオジ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 In autumn, it is recorded in Hong Kong dropping into rice paddies to feed on ripe rice (Hong Kong Bird Watching Society).
- 💡 Its body length of 15.5 cm is slightly shorter than a new pencil (about 17.5 cm) (Comparison).
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Yellow-breasted Bunting is a bunting that breeds from western Russia to Kamchatka, northern Mongolia, northeastern China, and northern Japan, and winters in southern China and Indochina. Globally, it is Critically Endangered (CR).
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Breeding males have a black face and chin, yellow underparts, a chestnut breast band, crown, and nape, and a white bar across the median wing coverts. Females have a distinct head pattern and a pale rufous rump.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It feeds on ripe rice in autumn and grass seeds at other times. During migration, it is frequently recorded in rice paddies along its flyway.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List CR (2017) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22720966/119335690
- • IUCN Red List category CR — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 119335690
- • wikidata.org — Q335535
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Yellow-breasted bunting in Nepal 02 -Cropped.jpg
- • avifauna.hkbws.org.hk — 056700
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Ferran Sayol · CC0 1.0 (Related taxon silhouette — Emberiza alcoveri)
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.