Common Name: Yellow-breasted Bunting
Scientific Name: Emberiza aureola 
Family: Emberizidae
Nepali Name: Bagale Bagedi ( बगाले बगेडी )
Size: 15 cm 
Location: Manahara, Nepal 

In Nepal’s lowland, from about 75 m up to roughly 915 m, the Yellow-breasted Bunting makes fleeting appearances, typically during migration or winter. The breeding male is unmistakable: bright white underparts streaked with black along the flanks, rich brown upperparts, a striking black face and throat bar, and a delicate pink lower mandible. Outside the breeding season, his colours fade, but the pattern remains discernible.

Females are subtler yet equally elegant, with a back patterned in dense grey-brown streaks, underparts a softer yellow, and a whitish face marked by dark stripes across the crown, eye, and cheeks.

The Yellow-breasted Bunting is threatened mainly by hunting and trapping along its migration routes, the loss of grasslands and reed beds to farming and development, and pesticide use that depletes its food supply. With the species’ global population having crashed by over 90% in recent decades, even small pressures in Nepal contribute to its rapid decline.

Please feel free to comment below if the above species has been misidentified.

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