TAIWAN - Black-faced Buntings

Black-faced Buntings were the commonest wintering bird we saw and caught on Taiwan; there was a right across the board mixture of ages and sexes which allowed excellent comparisons to be made in terms of feather shape and wear which, in terms of long distance migrants was one of the more interesting things to see for me during the ringing sessions.   I haven't really got too much experience catching long distance migrants on their wintering grounds, just when they return later in the spring so here's a selection of them that we caught.

Cracking adult male

1st winter male (probably)

1st winter female (probably)