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GrasslandCavity nestSmall · 20 g
What the Desert Wheatear sounds like
ID tip
The head and nape of the adult male desert wheatear are a pale sandy-grey colour with the feathers tipped grey. The mantle, scapulars and back are a similar but rather richer colour. The rump and upper tail-coverts are pale buff. The basal third of the tail feathers are white and the rest black with a pale buff tip. A curved stripe over the eye is pale buff and extends backwards. The feathers of the chin, throat, lores and ear-coverts are black tipped with white. The breast and flanks are sandy-buff and the belly and under tail-coverts are creamy-white tinged with buff.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
When to see the Desert Wheatear
One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 7 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is November, the month with the most records.
Where to see the Desert Wheatear
The map shades 58 countries with regular records, and 12 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.
Recorded as a rare visitor in Finland, Netherlands, Ireland, Portugal, Georgia, Nigeria, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Latvia, Kenya, Senegal, Malta.
About the Desert Wheatear
The desert wheatear is a wheatear, a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher (Muscicapidae). It is a migratory insectivorous species, 14.5 to 15 cm in length. Both western and eastern forms of the desert wheatear are rare vagrants to western Europe. The western desert wheatear breeds in the Sahara and the northern Arabian Peninsula. The eastern race is found in the semi-deserts of Central Asia and in winter in Pakistan and northeast Africa.
Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Easily confused with
Capped WheatearOenanthe pileataThe capped wheatear is 17–18 cm long and weighs 32 g.
Brown Rock ChatOenanthe fuscaThe brown rock chat is about 17 cm long, larger than the somewhat similar-looking Indian robin.
Western Black-eared WheatearOenanthe hispanicaThe breeding male has the forehead and crown white or nearly white, the mantle buff, and the wings blacker than those of the northern wheatear.
Side by side: Desert Wheatear vs Isabelline Wheatear · Desert Wheatear vs Western Black-eared Wheatear · Brown Rock Chat vs Desert Wheatear · Capped Wheatear vs Desert Wheatear
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