China (mainland), Japan, Kazakhstan (B), Mongolia (B), Myanmar, North Korea, Russia (Asian) (B), Russia (Central Asian) (B), Russia (European) (B), South Korea, Taiwan (China), USA.
Vagrant to Denmark, Hong Kong (China), Nepal, Portugal, Sweden, United Kingdom.
Rarity Status
Currently this species is not classified as a rarity in this country OR information has not been updated.
Population
Estimated population is unknown (2010).
Pallas's Reed Bunting (Emberiza pallasi) [XC838970]
by Christoph Bock from \u7530\u5bee\u6d0b, New Taipei City, Taiwan (call)
Pallas's Reed Bunting (Emberiza pallasi) [XC495884]
by Oscar Campbell from Sweet Gobi Geolodge, Mongolia (call, song)
Subspecies
Together with Ochre-rumped Bunting (Emberiza yessoensis) and Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), sometimes placed in genus Schoeniclus. Recent molecular study indicates that it is a sister-species to Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus), with Ochre-rumped Bunting (Emberiza yessoensis) as sister to both. Subspecies minor of Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus) sometimes included in present species. Significance of geographical variation not fully understood, and possibly linked to variation in habitat preferences. Further study is required. Subspecies lydiae, differing from others vocally and in ecology, possibly a separate species. Subspecies polaris exhibits partially clinal variation, with gradation towards darker plumage and more heavily streaked rump in east of range.
Proposed subspecies montana and its synonym suschkiniana (described from south-eastern Russian Altai) considered synonymous with nominate, and latolineata (from Kolyma Peninsula) with polaris.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
polaris Middendorff, 1853 - Breeds north-eastern European Russia eastern in Siberia (south to basins of R Angara, R Lena and R Aldan) to Chukotskiy Peninsula, Sea of Okhotsk coast and northern Kamchatka. Winters in north-eastern and eastern China, extreme south-eastern Russia (southern Ussuriland) and Korea.
pallasi (Cabanis, 1851) - Breeds from Altai and Sayan Mts east to Transbaikalia and western Amurland (south of Tukuringra Mts) and south to northern Mongolia and north-eastern China (north-western Heilongjiang), also disjunctly in eastern Tien Shan. Winters in western and northern China (Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia).
lydiae Portenko, 1929 - Breeds from southern Siberia (Tuva and southern Transbaikalia) through north, central and eastern Mongolia, probably to adjacent north-eastern China (north-eastern Inner Mongolia). Non-breeding probably in northern China.
minor Middendorff, 1853 - Breeds Transbaikalia east to Russian Far East and north-eastern China (Heilongjiang). Winters in eastern China.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet