 | This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Cretzschmar's bunting" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Cretzschmar's bunting | |
|---|---|
| |
| Adult male | |
| Conservation status | |
 Least Concern (IUCN 3.1) | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Emberizidae |
| Genus: | Emberiza |
| Species: | E. caesia |
| Binomial name | |
| Emberiza caesia Cretzschmar, 1827 | |
| |
Cretzschmar's bunting (Emberiza caesia) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae, a group now separated by most modern authors from the finches, Fringillidae.
Etymology and taxonomy
The English common name commemorates the German physician and scientist Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar who founded the Senckenberg Natural History Museum. The genus name Emberiza is from Old German Embritz, a bunting. The specific caesias is from Latin caesius, "bluish-grey".
This species is monotypic.
Description
This bird is smaller than ortolan. The breeding male has a grey head with orange moustaches. The upperparts are brown and heavily streaked, except on the rump, and the underparts are rusty orange. The stout bill is pink.
Females and young birds have a weaker head pattern, and are more similar to ortolans. They can be distinguished by the warm brown rump and white eye-ring.
Ecology
Distribution
Cretzschmar's bunting breeds on sunny open hillsides with some bushes. It is mainly coastal or insular, and often breeds at lower levels than the closely related ortolan bunting where both occur. It lays four to six eggs in a ground nest. Its natural food consists of seeds and when feeding young, insects.
Habitat
It breeds in Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and the Levant. It is migratory, wintering in Sudan and northern Eritrea. It is a very rare wanderer to western Europe.
Food and feeding
This species forages almost entirely on the ground, feeding on small seeds, especially from grasses, and supplementing its diet with small invertebrates, particularly ants.
Status
This species is classified as "Least Concern" in the IUCN Red List due to its extensive range and large population size, neither of which meet the criteria for threatened status. While population trends are uncertain, there's no evidence of a rapid decline that would warrant a higher conservation concern.
Europe hosts an estimated 230,000-451,000 mature individuals, comprising 85% of the global range. This suggests a preliminary global population size of 271,000-531,000 mature individuals, though further refinement is needed.
References
- BirdLife International (2019) . "Emberiza caesia". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019: e.T22720920A155518025. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2017-1.RLTS.T22720920A155518025.en. Retrieved 20 September 2024.
- Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael (2003). Whose Bird? Men and Women Commemorated in the Common Names of Birds. London: Christopher Helm. p. 94.
- Jobling, James A. (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London, United Kingdom: Christopher Helm. pp. 83, 145. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- Madge, Steve (2020). "Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza caesia), version 1.0". Birds of the World. doi:10.2173/bow.crebun2.01species_shared.bow.project_name. ISSN 2771-3105.
- Hoyo, Josep del; Elliott, Andrew; Christie, David A.; Bock, Walter Joseph; Collar, Nigel James (2011). Handbook of the birds of the world. Barcelona: Lynx ed. ISBN 978-84-96553-78-1.
- "Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza caesia) | Text | BirdLife International". datazone.birdlife.org. Retrieved 2025-01-16.
- European Commission. Directorate General for Environment.; IUCN.; BirdLife International. (2022). European red list of birds 2021. LU: Publications Office. doi:10.2779/967570.