Mo Ganji: Yellow-breasted Bunting | Wiesenammer | Emberiza aureola | No. 247/250 from work group 8/99

Yellow-breasted Bunting | Wiesenammer | Emberiza aureola

Mo Ganji turns toward the yellow-breasted bunting — a small migratory songbird once widespread across Eurasian grasslands and wetlands — by letting the single line move toward essence rather than abundance or familiarity. The line condenses the being into a reduced coherence, setting aside song, plumage and seasonal movement so that presence can surface without illustration. In Ganji’s understanding, the line does not belong to the bird alone; it remains open, reminding us that every form is also a human concept provisionally placed upon a living continuum.

Emberiza aureola is listed as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List. Until the late 20th century, the species was considered one of the most common songbirds in northern Eurasia. Its population collapsed rapidly within a few decades, particularly along migration routes and wintering grounds in East and Southeast Asia.

The principal cause of decline has been large-scale hunting and trapping for food, combined with habitat loss on breeding and wintering grounds. Because the yellow-breasted bunting migrates in large numbers and uses predictable stopover sites, exploitation was both efficient and devastating. Despite recent protections, recovery remains uncertain due to the severity of past losses.

Ganji’s single line opens a space in which the bunting can be encountered beyond nostalgia or warning. It allows the being to be perceived as a life once carried by sheer continuity of numbers, suggesting how abundance itself can foster vulnerability, and how disappearance can unfold swiftly when visibility becomes a liability rather than a safeguard.