Black-faced Bunting - Emberiza spodocephala

On Saturday 13 December 2025 Tim Schipper (who also found the Green Warbler of 2020) and Thomas Avila Lutke Schipholt were birding by bicycle on Texel NH with the intention to bird along the eastern site of the island. At around 9:31 hours along the Pontweg their attention was drawn by bunting Emberiza perched in the top of a small tree in the garden of no 35. Expecting a Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniculus, but it was not. It took them no time to identify the bird as a Black-faced Bunting E spodocephala. They warned other birders, shared photographs and alerted the Dutch Birding Alerts. First birders already on Texel were able to connect with the bird, but around 11:03 the bird was seen for the last time. Next day, Sunday 14 December 2024, the bird appeared again and was seen intermittently by c 200 birders. I had unsatisfactory views of the bird at the end of the day, so I decided to go back on Wednesday 17 December, when I had very good views of the bird several times on both sides of the Pontweg. The bird proved to be a first-year male, because of the amount of grey on the neck and upper breast.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

Note the the bicoloured bill, the light submoustachial stripe being the lightest part of the head and the grey sides of the neck.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

The first picture I took, but I did not know where the bird was exactly, after seeing it through the telescope, so I took random pictures!

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

On Sunday 14 December I only had good looks of the bird back-on, exactly like this.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

Note the lighter, almost unmarked rump.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Jan van der Laan.

Showing complete white on T6 and the half of T5.

First-calendar year male; 17 December 2025, Pontweg 35, Den Hoorn, Texel NH; © Daniel Boer.

The bird was still present at time of writing (17 December 2025) and, if accepted, it will be tenth record for the Netherlands. The observation is in line with a clear influx of Black-faced Buntings that occurred in Western Europe this autumn. One bird trapped at Westenschouwen on 31 October 2025, one bird was seen flying by also at Westenschouwen Zld and two others trapped at Zandvoort NH on 5 and 10 November and one trapped Castricum NH on 12 November 2025; the bird on Texel was already the 6th record in the Netherlands in 2025. So far, a total of 21 birds have been observed in Europe, with observations in other countries in Great Britain (7), France (3), Norway (3), Belgium (1) and Sweden (1). The total number of records of Black-faced Bunting in the Netherlands now totals to 10, with this record being the second field observation and first twitchable.