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Northern Wheatear
Oenanthe oenanthe
Identify the Northern Wheatear by sound or photo and log your sightings with Birdpass.
The Northern Wheatear is a small, upright chat of open, stony ground and the most widespread wheatear, breeding from western Europe to Siberia with outposts in Greenland, Canada and Alaska. It is instantly recognised by its white rump and black T-shaped tail pattern. Famous for epic migrations, all populations winter in sub-Saharan Africa, some crossing oceans and ice to get there.
Did you know?
- “Wheatear” is a cleaned-up version of “white-arse”.
- For its size it makes one of the longest songbird migrations – some birds fly from Alaska or Canada to Africa.
Voice
About the species
Identification
The spring male is grey above and white below, with a buff throat and breast, a clear white supercilium and a black mask; the female is more subdued without a mask, with browner wings. In autumn females and young are sandy, the male slightly more contrasting. The key mark is the tail pattern: a white rump and a white tail with a black “T”.
Family
Turdidae
Size
Small (sparrow)
Colours
orange, grey, white, black, brown
About the habitat
Open, sparsely vegetated ground – rocky heaths, coastal dunes, grazed pastures, quarries, clearings and alpine tundra – with crevices for nesting.
Diet
Mainly insects and other invertebrates such as beetles, ants, caterpillars and spiders; small berries and seeds late in the season.
Behaviour
Feeds by running and hopping on open ground, stopping to bob and flick its tail, and making short dashes or sallies for prey. The male sings a crisp, scratchy warble from rocks, posts or in a song flight; the call is a hard “chack”. It nests in cavities such as rock crevices, stone walls, burrows or wood piles; both parents feed the chicks.
Sources
Photo: Andreas Trepte, CC BY-SA 2.5 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Steinschmaetzer Northern wheatear male.jpg
Sound: Hugo Leclerc, XC670093, CC BY 4.0 https://xeno-canto.org/670093
Text: Wikipedia (English) + FinBIF species descriptions, CC BY-SA 4.0; FinBIF: CC BY 4.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_wheatear
