I am not sure of the identification of this bird. There are several similar species, including the brown-rumped bunting and Cabanis's bunting, and there are a number of subspecies too. It is not listed on the latest Newquay inventory (for 31/12/15) or on Zootierliste. Suggestions are welcome.
@gentle lemur If it helps, these are the ID points from Handbook Birds of the World: (referring to Emberiza flaviventris)
"Distinguished from E. poliopleura by rather plain (not pale-streaked) mantle, scapulars concolorous with mantle, less white in face, and richer golden-yellow underparts; from E. affinis by larger size, prominent white wingbars, broader black facial stripes and plain grey (not brownish) rump; from E. cabanisi by slightly smaller size, obvious white cheekstripe, whitish flanks and belly, and orange wash on breast."
I think you can discount cabanisi as a possibility because of the cheekstripe and I also don't think it's affinis because the white cheekstripes do not seem broad enough for this species. I'm not 100% happy with distinguishing this from poliopleura. Is the latter species even possible in European collections? Features do seem to match flaviventris but the HBW illustrations show the black extending beyond the eye in flaviventris which this individual does not seem to show. I don't know if that is actually diagnostic, however.
@LaughingDove Thank you. I think you may have set me on the right track. I have several books on West African birds, but nothing quite matched. But E. poliopleura, the Somali bunting, looks to be very similar to this bird. I had realised that this bird might have originated in East Africa, but the species I looked at have races in eastern and southern areas too and I missed poliopleura completely (there are quite a lot of buntings ).
So I now think this bird is probably a Somali bunting. Unfortunately I don't think I can retitle the images in this Gallery
