Albania (B), Chad, Cyprus (B), Egypt, Eritrea, Greece (B) (P), Israel (B), Jordan (B) (P), Lebanon (B), Macedonia [The Former Yugoslav Republic of] (B), Morocco (B), Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic (B), Turkey (B).
Vagrant to Algeria, Austria, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Iran [Islamic Republic of] (E), Italy, Kuwait, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Malta, Netherlands Antilles, Oman, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom.
Breeds south-western Albania, most of Greece, Crete, much of coastal western and southern Turkey, Cyprus, western Syria, Lebanon, western Jordan, northern Israel and Palestine; possibly also north-western Iraq. Winters in Sudan both on coast and along Nile Valley; some reported southern Egypt, north-western and south-western Saudi Arabia and Eritrea.
 
Population
Estimated population is 500,000 - 1,000,000 (2010).
Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza caesia) [XC895732]
by Stuart Fisher from \u063a\u0632\u0627\u0644, Al Taif, Makkah Province, Saudi Arabia (subsong)
Cretzschmar's Bunting (Emberiza caesia) [XC808961]
by Guilherme Melo from Lesvos (near Moni Agiou Ioannou Theologou), North Aegean Region, Decentralized Administration of the Aegean, Greece (song)