Mitochondrial genome has proven to be a powerful tool for phylogenetic inference, phylogeography, and molecular evolution. In this study, we determined the complete mitochondrial genome of Emberiza tristrami (Passeriformes: Emberizidae) for use in future phylogenetic analyses. This circular mitochondrial genome is 16,789 bp in length and composed of 13 typical protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA genes, 2 ribosomal RNA genes, and 1 putative control region (CR). One extra nucleotide "C" of nad3 is not detected in the mitogenome of E. tristrami. The CR of E. tristrami can be divided into three domains: ETAS (extended termination-associated sequence) domain I (nt 1-431), central conserved domain II (nt 432-847), and CSB (conserved sequence block) domain III (nt 848-1217). Six conserved sequence boxes in the central conserved domain II were identified as boxes F, E, D, C, b, and B.