Description:

Hooded bunting with rather long pale pinkish bill and prominent whitish eyering. Male has blue-grey head with buffish submoustachial stripe and throat, deep rusty-pink breast and belly, and diffusely streaked sandy-brown mantle with pronounced rufous scapulars. Rump is sandy-grey. Female is generally paler.

Distribution:

Common passage migrant through Ghizer, Hunza, Nagar, Gilgit and Diamer districts. Usually inhabits bare mountain slopes, rocky mountainsides, foothills with sparse vegetation and dry cultivation from 1000m up to 3200m.

Behavior:

Forages quietly on ground in pairs and small parties among sparse vegetation; feeds early morning, before flying to water source, resuming feeding in early evening. Wide variety of seeds, and shoots of dry-country plants, including those of spurge, sea-buckthorn and salt tree and various grasses.

Photo Gallery:

Range & Occurrence:

Resident Species

Summer Breeder

Winter Visitor

Passage Migrant

Distribution Map of Grey-hooded Bunting in Gilgit-Baltistan (Status: )

Seasonal Occurrence of Grey-hooded Bunting

Resources:

Birds of Pakistan: Helm Field Guides (R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
The Birds of Pakistan (T. J. Roberts)
Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (C. Inskipp, R. Grimmett & T. Inskipp)
Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide (P. Rasmussen & J. Anderton)
Birds of India: Collins Field Guide (N. Arlott)
Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan (S. Ali & S. D. Ripley)
Handbook of the Birds of the World (https://www.hbw.com)
The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, 6th Edition
iNaturalist BoGB (inaturalist.org/projects/birds-of-gilgit-baltistan)
Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan (http://fb.me/birdsgb)

*Gallery images on this page are shared from flickr.com, and are copyrighted to their respective creators or owners.