Rustic Bunting - Hokkaido Photo Tour

The Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica) is a passerine bird in the bunting family; their appearance is similar to the Chipping sparrow.   Bunting birds and similar-sized songbirds are some of my favorite winter birds to photograph just before my annual Hokkaido photo Tour.  Rustic Buntings breed across the northern Palearctic and are migratory in winter to southern Japan, South-east Asia, and eastern China; they do wander into western Europe but rarely.  These birds are similar in size to Reed buntings, generally with males having white to light gray underparts, reddish flanks, pink legs, and a pink lower mandible.  Females are similar to the Lark sparrow having a more heavily streaked back, and their face is whitish with a supercilium.  The supercilium is the plumage found on some bird species; this is a stripe that runs from the bird's beaks above the eye and runs to the bird's head.  This feature is also known as the eyebrow, which is distinct from the eyestripe.   Rustic buntings birds camouflage themselves depending on the season; most migrating birds molt their bright feathers before their journey and replace them with a more subdued palette.  I am always amazed and thrilled when spotting them in the breeding season in the far north, then spotting them in the south during winter; it's amazing viewing and documenting their feather molt coloration transformation.