Birding

Xinjiang’s Buntings: Seven Species, a Lot of Driving

September 14, 2026 by Kai Pflug No Comments

Here’s a puzzle.

Looking at the names of the seven bunting species I saw in Xinjiang in August, it seems like they should prefer rather different habitats:

Pine Bunting – pine forest

Corn Bunting – agricultural fields

Rock Bunting – rocky areas

Meadow Bunting – meadows

Red-headed Bunting – discotheque?

Grey-necked Bunting – office?

Ortolan Bunting – somewhere where Greek is taught in high school?

Pine, Corn / Rock, Meadow / Red-headed, Grey-necked / Ortolan Bunting (Xinjiang, Aug 2026)

But then, looking up their habitat requirements in the HBW, the picture begins to blur:

Pine Bunting – forest edges, thinned or fragmented woodland, and clearings

Corn Bunting – open rolling grasslands, both in natural steppe and agricultural land

Rock Bunting – sunny rocky slopes, ravines and clearings in conifer forests

Meadow Bunting – lightly wooded hills, foothills and rocky steppe

Red-headed Bunting – open steppe, semidesert margins, farmland and field edges

Grey-necked Bunting – dry, rocky mountainsides, ravines and upland plateaux

Ortolan Bunting – lightly wooded, dry, open country

All these – with the slight exception of the Pine Bunting – seem to be variations of “we like edges, clearings, scattered bushes, rocky patches, sparse vegetation and the places where one habitat turns into another.”

So why is it, then, that at most locations visited on the trip, there appeared to be only one or two bunting species in any numbers, rather than all seven? Or, to ask it in a slightly grumpier way: was it really necessary to drive around so much just to see different bunting species?

I guess the answer lies in the HBW descriptions being rather vague and unspecific, at least from the perspective of a bunting looking for its ideal habitat. The real differences are probably in the precise combination of altitude, latitude, vegetation structure, and moisture – details that can vary by species and season, as well as with breeding range and migration strategy.

It’s a bit like saying that humans like houses with four walls and some windows.

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 22 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well. He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.