Black-headed Bunting

The black-headed bunting is a passerine of the bunting family, 15 cm long, larger than a reed bunting, with a long tail. Adult males are well marked with yellow underparts, a chestnut back and a black head; adult females in breeding plumage look like duller males, and in other plumages can be hard to separate from the closely related red-headed bunting, with which it hybridises naturally in the zone of overlap in northern Iran (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds in open scrubby areas including agricultural land. Males form pure flocks during migration and arrive in the winter quarters well before the females, and in winter they form large communal roosts in thorny acacia trees, often with other species such as the yellow-throated sparrow. The longest migration noted from a ringed bird is about 7,000 km. The clutch is four to six eggs, hatching after about 13 days (Wikipedia, general species account).