Common reed bunting

Common reed bunting
Temporal range:
Male at Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Female at Otmoor, Oxfordshire
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Emberizidae
Genus: Emberiza
Species:
E. schoeniclus
Binomial name
Emberiza schoeniclus
Subspecies
  • E. s. schoeniclus (Linnaeus, 1758)
  • E. s. caspia Ménétries, 1832
  • E. s. centralasiae Hartert, 1904
  • E. s. harterti Sushkin, 1906
  • E. s. incognita (Zarudny, 1917)
  • E. s. intermedia Degland, 1849
  • E. s. korejewi (Zarudny, 1907)
  • E. s. lusitanica Steinbacher, 1930
  • E. s. pallidior Hartert, 1904
  • E. s. parvirostris Buturlin, 1910
  • E. s. passerina Pallas, 1771
  • E. s. pyrrhulina (Swinhoe, 1876)
  • E. s. pyrrhuloides Pallas, 1811
  • E. s. reiseri Hartert, 1904
  • E. s. stresemanni Steinbacher, 1930
  • E. s. tschusii Reiser and Almasy, 1898
  • E. s. ukrainae (Zarudny, 1917)
  • E. s. witherbyi von Jordans, 1923
  • E. s. zaidamensis Portenko, 1929
Range of E. schoeniclus
  Breeding
  Resident
  Passage
  Non-breeding
Synonyms
  • Fringilla schoeniclus Linnaeus, 1758
  • Schoeniclus schoeniclus (Linnaeus, 1758)

The common reed bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), or simply reed bunting, is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. This species breeds throughout Europe and much of the Palearctic region. While most individuals migrate south in winter, those in the milder south and west of the range are resident. It is a common sight in reedbeds, but also breeds in drier open areas such as moorland and arable land. For example, it inhabits purple moor grass and rush pastures, which are designated as a Biodiversity Action Plan habitat in the UK. It occurs on poorly drained neutral and acid soils of the lowlands and upland fringe.