Photo © by DJRWhittle
Renfrewshire, Scotland, 6 May 2021
- Oenanthe oenanthe
Identification
14·5–15·5 cm (5¾-6 in) length
White rump, basal tail patches with black centre and terminal band (inverted "T" when seen from behind).
Breeding Male
- Grey upperparts
- Buff throat
- Black wings and face mask
- White stripe above the eye
Female
- Sandy-brown above and buff below
- Eye patch and wings are brown
Fall & Winter Male
- Similar to female but browner.
Juvenile
- Similar to female but spotted white on crown, back and chest.
Distribution
Photo © by Paul Hackett
Seaforth Nature Reserve, Liverpool, UK, 18 April 2004
Europe, Asia, Africa, North America and Greenland.
Europe: Breeds in most of Europe including for example Iceland and the Faroe Islands, in the south only at higher elevation. These populations winter in Africa.
North America and Greenland: Populations breeding in Greenland and eastern Canada migrates to Africa (via western Europe). Populations breeding in Alaska and northwestern Canada migrate by a western route through Asia and the Middle East to eastern Africa south of the Sahara. Both of these populations give rise to vagrants seen further south in the Americas and The Caribbean.
Asia: Breeds across the entire northern half of the continent, migrating to sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa: Africa is important as the winter range for almost all populations, in a broad belt from Senegal east to Sudan and south in eastern Africa to Zambia. A few also winter in southwest Asia.
Taxonomy
Wheatears were originally classified in the thrush family Turdidae, but is now considered to be Old World flycatchers, family Muscicapidae.
This thread discusses aspects of Northern Wheatear taxonomy.
Atlas Wheatear was formerly included in this species.
Subspecies
Clements recognizes three subspecies[1].
- O. o. leucorhoa (Greenland Wheatear)
- O. o. oenanthe (Eurasian Wheatear)
- British Isles to Mediterranean, Siberia and Alaska; migrates to central and eastern Africa. The migration from Alaska to East Africa is the longest known migration of any songbird.
- O. o. libanotica
- Southern Spain and Balearic Is. to Iran, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Marginally paler and longer-billed.
Habitat
Rocky tundra, grazed slopes with short turf and rocky outcrops, hill pastures, sand dunes.
Behaviour
Diet
Diet consists mosly of insects such as beetles and ants, also some berries at times.
Breeding
Nest is on the ground on dry tundra, usually in hole in a wall, under stones, or in old rabbit burrow. and is a cup of grass, twigs, weeds, lined with finer material such as moss, lichens, rootlets. The clutch is usually 5-6 pale blue eggs; unmarked, or with fine reddish brown dots, which are incubated by the female for 13-14 days.
Vocalisation
Song usually in up to 3 sections. First section has 1 or 2 notes, second has 2 or 3 but up to 10 rapidly repeated notes; third section tends to be quieter, is often a repetition of first section. E. g. in the song phrase zee zee widdle ee, the first and third sections are high-pitched zee or ee notes.
Call is a straight whistle.
In Culture
The name "Wheatear" derives from Old English and means "white rear" describing its distinctive white rump.
References
- Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2023. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2023. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2023. IOC World Bird List (v 13.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.13.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
- Svensson, L., Mullarney, K., & Zetterström, D. (2009). Collins Bird Guide, 2nd edition. Collins ISBN 978 0 00 726814 6
- Bairlein, F.; Norris, D.R.; Nagel, R.; Bulte, M.; Voigt, C.C.; Fox, J.W.; Hussell, D.J.T.; Schmaljohann, H. (2012). Cross-hemisphere migration of a 25 g songbird. Biology Letters. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.1223
- Collar, N. (2018). Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/58539 on 13 September 2018).
- Cramp, S. 1988. The birds of the Western Palearctic, Vol. 5: tyrant flycatchers to thrushes. Oxford, U.K: Oxford Univ. Press.
- Kren, J. and A. C. Zoerb (1997). Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe), version 2.0. In The Birds of North America (A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bna.316
- Thorup, K., Troels Eske Ortvad, & Rabøl, J. (2006). Do Nearctic Northern Wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa) Migrate Nonstop to Africa? The Condor, 108(2), 446-451. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/4151031
- Birdwatchers Pocket Guide ISBN 1-85732-804-3
- BirdForum members personal observations
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.1
