Gray Bunting Emberiza variabilis Scientific name definitions

14–17 cm; 20·9–30 g. Male breeding is distinctive, sometimes with dusky lores, other­wise entire head, upperparts and underparts dark slate-grey, mantle with some blackish-brown streaks , belly somewhat paler, undertail-coverts with whitish feather edges; tail dark brown, feathers with bluish-grey edges; upperwing-coverts also slaty grey, centre of each feather darker, tertials dark brown with greyish (on inner feather) to rufous-brown (outer tertial) edges, primaries and secondaries dark brown with grey-brown or brownish edges; iris dark chestnut-brown; upper mandible dark grey with pale pinkish cutting edge, lower mandible pale pinkish with blackish on tip and along part of underside; legs pinkish. Male non-breeding is very similar to breeding, but grey areas of plumage partly obscured by brownish or buffish fringes of fresh feathers; brown fringes may give impression of lateral crownstripes, and buffish fringes can help to produce impression of faint supercilium and median crownstripe. First-winter male has crown olive-grey, tinged rufous, slate-grey supercilium, ear-coverts, sides of neck and throat; mantle and scapulars olive grey-brown, streaked dark brown, back to uppertail-coverts slate-grey with rufous-chestnut feather tips (tips partly concealing general slaty pattern), greater and median upperwing-coverts blackish with blue-grey edges and buffish tips (two wingbars), blackish-brown flight-feathers, tertials with rufous outer edge at tip of inner web, primaries and secondaries with buff edges (more rufous on secondaries), tail blackish-brown, central pair of rectrices rufescent brown; underparts buffish-white mixed with pale slaty, palest on belly, some streaks on flanks; iris dark grey-brown. First-summer male is similar to male breeding, but with brownish cast, and rump shows some rufous. Female breeding is similar to first-winter male, lacking slaty tones on head, rump and underparts, has malar stripe greyish, throat and underparts whitish-buff with dusky streaks, belly whiter; iris dark chestnut-brown. Female non-breeding is similar to breeding, but with fresh plumage. First-winter female is similar to female non-breeding, but upperparts more rufescent, supercilium, submoustachial stripe and throat paler, and iris dark grey-brown. Juvenile has olive-buffish supercilium and lores, with ear-coverts and side of neck olive-brown, malar stripe dark greyish, mantle more diffusely streaked than in subsequent plumages, scapulars chestnut-brown with dark centres, back, rump and uppertail-coverts uniformly rufous-chestnut, breast olive-buffish with more prominent black streaks than in subsequent plumages, belly and flanks indistinctly streaked; iris dark grey-brown, legs pinkish.

E Russia (S Kamchatka), Kuril Is, S Sakhalin and Japan (Hokkaido S to C Honshu). Winters mainly in S half of Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu and Ryukyu Is (S to Okinawa); rarely in S Korea.

Diet insufficiently known; appears to include small invertebrates, seeds and small fruits and berries. Usually forages on ground . Secretive. Generally singly and in pairs, including in non-breeding season; during migration sometimes in small groups of up to five or six individuals.

Song , from inconspicuous perch inside bush or undergrowth, usually starts with soft drawn-out note, and is slow, with 3–5 distinctive notes, “swee swee chi-chi-chi” or “hsuuu twis-twis-twis”, or quicker versions e.g. “hsuuu tsisisisisis”. Call a sharp “tzii”, similar to that of E. spodocephala.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Uncommon in most of range; locally common. Global population not reliably estimated, but no signs of decrease and considered stable.