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Classification

• Order: Passeriformes
• Family: Muscicapidés
• Genus: Oenanthe
• Species: Oenanthe

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descriptor

• Linnaeus, 1758

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biometrics

• Size: 16 cm
• Wingspan: 26 to 32 cm
• Weight: 17 to 30 g

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Distribution

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bird song

Find out more about the bird song

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IUCN CONSERVATION STATUS

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IDENTIFICATION

The Northern Wheatear is slightly larger than the House Sparrow. In flight, it is easy to recognise by its white rump and rectrices ending in an inverted black “T”. In the male’s breeding plumage, the black of the wings contrasts with the grey back. The tips of the tail are also black, as is the clear mask over the eyes. The rump is white, as is most of the rectrices. The underside of the body is yellowish, fading to white in the lower part. The female has the same colouring, but with less contrast. The black is replaced by brown or dark grey. Young birds can be distinguished from females by the spots on their backs and breasts. Fledglings have interesting yellow beaks with a transverse black stripe on the tongue. The Northern Wheatear can be confused with its southern relative, the Eared Wheatear. However, the latter is distinguished by an ochre tinge on the upper surface and comes in two variants: black-throated and white-throated. There is also a notable difference in the length and pattern of the black on the wing feathers. The differences between the sexes are only fully perceptible during the spring passage.

HABITAT

Although the Northern Wheatear is a typical mountain dweller, it is also often found at lower altitudes, in sandy and stony fields, sunny wasteland and fallow land, sand and brick pits, railway embankments and roadbeds, and on any surface overgrown with weeds. It is a globetrotter that lives in a circle of varying width: Europe, Asia, North Africa, North America and even Greenland.