Striolated Bunting (Emberiza striolata) [XC149566]
by Phil Gregory from Jethwai, Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, India (call)
Striolated Bunting (Emberiza striolata) [XC371078]
by David Darrell-Lambert from Muscat, Muscat Governorate, Oman (call)
Subspecies
Emberiza sahari has been split by Kirwan and Shirihai (2007) from all other populations of House Bunting (Emberiza striolata) (nominate striolata plus jebelmarrae and saturiator) on the basis of reported differences in plumage (mainly head pattern and degree of streaking on the upperparts), bill size, vocalizations and ecology. However, this fails to take account of our lack of knowledge of the voice of the geographically intermediate jebelmarrae (differences in both song and call in any case seem relatively minor), fails to acknowledge jebelmarrae's intermediacy in plumage and bill size, and misses the point that the ecological distinction is not absolute and therefore this treatment is not accepted following a review by the BirdLife Taxonomic Working Group.
Subspecies jebelmarrae interpreted as an intergrade between nominate and saturatior by some workers, but others consider it synonymous with latter. The situation is complicated by considerable individual variation in plumage.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
striolata (Lichtenstein, 1823) - Israel and Sinai Peninsula, Arabian Peninsula, southern Iran, Pakistan and north-western India, and north-eastern Sudan, Eritrea and northern Somalia.
jebelmarrae (Lynes, 1920) - North-eastern Chad and western Sudan.
saturatior (Sharpe, 1901) - Central Sudan, south-western Ethiopia and north-western Kenya.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet