Gray Bunting

Emberiza variabilisOrder: PASSERIFORMESFamily: Sparrows (Emberizidae)

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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.

Gray Bunting

Gray Bunting Breeding Male: Medium sized, dark gray bunting with black streaks on back, shoulders, and underparts. Undertail coverts are white. Heavy, pink bill with black tip, culmen. Pink legs and feet. Short flights, alternates rapid wing beats with periods of wings pulled to sides. Secretive.

● Song: "houee-tseewee-tseewee"

● Foraging & Feeding: Gray Bunting: Eats primarily seeds but takes some berries and insects, especially in summer months; forages in trees, bushes, and on the ground.

● Breeding & nesting: Gray Bunting: Five white eggs spotted with red gray are laid in a nest made of grass and moss, and lined with finer grass, rootlets, and hair. Incubation ranges from 11 to 13 days and is carried out by the female.

● Similar species: Gray Bunting: Little Bunting has gray-brown upperparts, white underparts, and brown patches on head.

Flight Pattern

Swift flight with rapid wing beats alternating with brief periods of wings pulled to sides.

Gray Bunting Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: Gray Bunting: Native of Asia; rare visitor to western Aleutians. Preferred habitats include thickets in coniferous and mixed forests in hills and mountains.

^BreedingMonogamous, Solitary nester

^PopulationAccidental in North America

^MigrationMigratory

^Weight0.5 - 0.7 Ounces

Field Guide to Birds of North America

Gray Bunting

Gray Bunting

Flight Pattern