In 1862 Emperor Franz Joseph I awarded Bukovina a ducal coat of arms: blue and red longitudinal sections and the head of an aurochs surrounded by three golden stars. The coat of arms is surrounded by a velvet coat on which a duke's hat lies adorned with precious stones.
(Bornemann, Kulturelle Arbeitshefte)

An Aurochs is the extinct wild ox of Europe, from which today's cattle are probably descended. A large black animal, it stood 1.8 meters (6 foot) high at the shoulder and had spreading, forwardly curved horns.

The Bukovina Society of the Americas, like the Landsmannschaft der Buchenlanddeutschen, has adopted this crest as its own. A similar crest appears on the flag of the Republic of Moldova.

François R. Velde's WWW page, Arms of the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy provides further descriptions and illustrations of both the Imperial Arms and the Arms of the various crown lands of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It quotes Meyers Grosses Konversations-Lexicon, 6th Ed. (1908) for the heraldic description of the Arms of the Duchy of Bukovina: iper pale azure and gules, a bull's head caboshed sable, horned argent, between three mullets or.

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