Little Bunting

Emberiza pusillaOrder: PASSERIFORMES Family: Sparrows (Emberizidae)

Codes: Common Name: LIBU Scientific Name: EMBPUS ITIS Taxonomic No.: 179542

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

Little Bunting

Little Bunting: Small finch with dark-streaked gray-brown upperparts, heavily streaked white underparts. Face and crown are chestnut-brown and black-bordered. Eye-ring is dull white; throat is white. Wings have two pale, thin bars. Legs, feet are yellow. Tail has white outer feathers.

● Song: "tee-tee-tee-teerec", "tsick"

● Foraging & Feeding: Little Bunting: Eats mainly seeds and insects; forages primarily on the ground but also gleans foliage.

● Breeding & nesting: Little Bunting: Four to six glossy, pale green, gray, olive, or pink eggs, marked with black, brown, and lilac, are laid in a nest made of dried leaves and grass, lined with fine grass and moss, and built in a ground depression hidden by dense vegetation. Incubation ranges from 11 to 12 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Little Bunting: Rustic Bunting is larger, lacks eye-rings, and has a heavier bill with pink lower mandible.

Flight Pattern

Swift bouncy flight on rapidly beating wings alternating with brief periods of wings pulled to body.

Little Bunting Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Little Bunting: Reported from St. Lawrence Island and the western Aleutians, northwestern Alaska, and California. Preferred habitats include mountain forests.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationAccidental to casual

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.5 Ounces

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America

Little Bunting

Little Bunting

Flight Pattern