The name commemorates the German physician and scientist Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar who founded the Senckenberg Natural History Museum.
Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar | McKay's Bunting | Stephen Bunting | bunting | Blue Bunting | Ronnie Bunting | Pulau Bunting | Painted Bunting | Ortolan Bunting | Josiah Bunting III | Cretzschmar's Bunting | Cirl Bunting | Christopher Bunting | Bunting (bird) | Bunting |
Eduard Rüppell's "Atlas of Rüppell's Travels in Northern Africa" (1826–30) includes an ornithological section by Philipp Jakob Cretzschmar describing around thirty new species, including Meyer's Parrot, Nubian Bustard, Goliath Heron, Streaked Scrub Warbler and Cretzschmar's Bunting.
McKay collected a number of plants and animals for Baird, including a pair of a new species of bird which were named McKay's Bunting in his honour.
The creek corridor is used by hundreds of species, including Bald Eagles, hawks, McKay's Bunting, song birds, herons, ducks, owls, frogs, salamanders, snakes, beaver, raccoons, coyotes, deer, and rabbits.
McKay's Bunting breeds on two islands in the Bering Sea, St. Matthew and Hall islands, and winters on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska.