Masked bunting

{{Short description|Species of bird}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}

{{Speciesbox

| status = LC

| status_system = IUCN3.1

| status_ref = {{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2016 |title=Emberiza personata |volume=2016 |page=e.T103768261A132042793 |url=https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/103768261/132042793 |access-date=12 November 2021}}

| image = Black-faced bunting in Sakai, Osaka, February 2016.jpg

| image_caption = Male in Sakai, Osaka

| taxon = Emberiza personata

| authority = Temminck, 1836

}}

The masked bunting (Emberiza personata) is a passerine bird in the bunting family Emberizidae. It is found in Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, and Japan.

The masked bunting was formerly considered as a subspecies of the black-faced bunting (Emberiza spodocephala) but is now treated as a separate species based on morphological and genetic differences.{{Cite journal | last1=Päckert | first1=M. | last2=Sun | first2=Y.-H. | last3=Strutzenberger | first3=P. | last4=Valchuk | first4=O. | last5=Tietze | first5=T. | last6=Martens | first6=J. | date=2015 | title=Phylogenetic relationships of endemic bunting species (Aves, Passeriformes, Emberizidae, Emberiza koslowi ) from the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau | journal=Vertebrate Zoology | volume=65 | issue=1 | pages=135–150 | doi=10.3897/vz.65.e31516 | doi-access=free | url=https://www.senckenberg.de/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/13_vertebrate_zoology_65-1_paeckert_et_al_135-150.pdf }}{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=January 2021 | title=Sylviid babblers, parrotbills, white-eyes | work=IOC World Bird List Version 12.1 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/sylvias/ | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | accessdate=22 May 2022}} The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.