On 18 November 2018, I photographed a bunting from Kenjar wetlands (12.95°E, 74.86°N), Dakshin Kannada district, Karnataka, which I first thought to be a Grey-necked Bunting Emberzia buchanani. But later, discussion with other birders in social media indicated that this could be an Ortolan Bunting E. hortulana, a species that had not been reported from Karnataka till date (Praveen et al., 2016, Praveen et al., 2018). I uploaded the images in eBird (Nayak, 2018) (Fig. 1 & 2).

The bird had bold, wide streaks on the mantle, white bar on coverts, striations on underparts (like those of a Tree Pipit) and 2-3 primaries projecting from the tip of tertials – all pointing to a first winter Ortolan Bunting. The pattern on the tertial fringe is ‘stepped’ – i.e. narrow at the base and broadening out towards the tip. (Grey-necked has fringe of equal width along its length). Though unlikely in the region, Cretzschmar’s Bunting E. caesia also shows this feature but this bird was more heavily streaked on breast with cold pallid underside than that of a young Cretzschmar Bunting – and that species moults earlier than Ortolan’s and have only fine streaking by this time of the year. I thank Tim Inskipp for providing important features for identification.

References

1. Praveen, J., Subramanya, S. & Raj, V. M. (2016). A checklist of the birds of Karnataka. Indian BIRDS, 12 (4&5): 89–118.
2. Praveen, J.,Subramanya, S. & Raj, Vijay Mohan. (2018). Karnataka checklist: Corrections and additions. Indian BIRDS, 14: (4),: 127–12.
3. Nayak, V. (2016). Website URL: https://ebird.org/view/checklist/S50051994 Accessed on 03 July 2019.