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Wheatear

Genus of birds

Note

the genus of birds

The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an Old World group, but the northern wheatear has established a foothold in eastern Canada and Greenland and in western Canada and Alaska.

Taxonomy

The genus Oenanthe was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with Oenanthe leucura, the black wheatear, as the type species. The genus formerly included fewer species but molecular phylogenetic studies of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae found that the genus Cercomela was polyphyletic with five species, including the type species C. melanura, phylogenetically nested within the genus Oenanthe. This implied that Cercomela and Oenanthe were synonyms. The genus Oenanthe (Vieillot, 1816) has taxonomic priority over Cercomela (Bonaparte, 1856) making Cercomela a junior synonym. The genus name Oenanthe was used by Aristotle for an unidentified bird. The word is derived from the Greek oenoē meaning "vine" and anthos meaning "bloom". The bird was associated with the grape harvest season.

The name "wheatear" is not derived from "wheat" or any sense of "ear", but is a folk etymology of "white" and "arse", referring to the prominent white rump found in most species.

Description

Most species have characteristic black and white or red and white markings on their rumps or their long tails. Most species are strongly sexually dimorphic; only the male has the striking plumage patterns characteristic of the genus, though the females share the white or red rump patches.

Species list

The genus contains 31 species:

Image	Common name	Scientific name	Distribution
[[File:Oenanthe oenanthe 01 II.jpg	120px]]	Northern wheatear	Oenanthe oenanthe	Holarctic ; winters to Sub-Saharan Africa
[[File:Oenanthe seebohmi, Morocco 1.jpg	120px]]	Atlas wheatear	Oenanthe seebohmi	Maghreb ; winters in western Sahel
[[File:Capped Wheatear, Oenanthe pileata, at Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Northern Cape, South Africa (36045617096).jpg	120px]]	Capped wheatear	Oenanthe pileata	southern Sub-Saharan Africa
-	Buff-breasted wheatear	Oenanthe bottae	Asir Mountains
[[File:2009-0726-OenaBott-Ethiopia-LakeTana-170.jpg	120px]]	Rusty-breasted wheatear	Oenanthe frenata	Ethiopian Highlands
[[File:Isabelline wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina) male, non-breeding.jpg	120px]]	Isabelline wheatear	Oenanthe isabellina	central-southern Eurasia ; winters to Sub-Saharan, Africa, Middle east and South Asia
-	Heuglin's wheatear	Oenanthe heuglinii	northern Sub-Saharan Africa
[[File:Oenanthe monacha 93093541.jpg	120px]]	Hooded wheatear	Oenanthe monacha	Middle-East
[[File:Desert Wheatear (Oenanthe deserti) (8079430894).jpg	120px]]	Desert wheatear	Oenanthe deserti	Maghreb and central Asia ; winters to North Africa, Middle East and South Asia
[[File:CollalbaRubia.jpg	120px]]	Western black-eared wheatear	Oenanthe hispanica	western Mediterranean ; winters to western Sahel
[[File:Pied Wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka) (8079431820).jpg	120px]]	Pied wheatear	Oenanthe pleschanka	central Asia ; winters to East Africa
[[File:Oostelijke-blonde-tapuit-3-2 (28541306412).jpg	120px]]	Eastern black-eared wheatear	Oenanthe melanoleuca	eastern Mediterranean ; winters to eastern Sahel
[[File:Cyprus Wheatear, Avagas, Cyprus 1.jpg	120px]]	Cyprus wheatear	Oenanthe cypriaca	Cyprus
[[File:Oenanthe albifrons.jpg	120px]]	White-fronted black chat	Oenanthe albifrons	Sudan (region)
-	Somali wheatear	Oenanthe phillipsi	Horn of Africa
[[File:Red-rumped wheatear (Oenanthe moesta moesta) male Kebili.jpg	120px]]	Red-rumped wheatear	Oenanthe moesta	Morocco to Jordan; partly winters to eastern Saudi Arabia
[[File:Blackstart-2006.01.04 m217.jpg	120px]]	Blackstart	Oenanthe melanura	Sahel and Red Sea region
[[File:Oenanthe familiaris at Kgalagadi (45974838501).jpg	120px]]	Familiar chat	Oenanthe familiaris	Sub-Saharan Africa
-	Brown-tailed rock chat	Oenanthe scotocerca	Chad, western Sudan and Horn of Africa
-	Sombre rock chat	Oenanthe dubia	montane desert of central Ethiopia
[[File:20191210 Brązowy ptak w Dźodhpurze 1051 7865.jpg	120px]]	Brown rock chat	Oenanthe fusca	northern South Asia
[[File:Variable wheatear (Oenanthe picata picata) male.jpg	120px]]	Variable wheatear	Oenanthe picata	from eastern Iran and southern Kazakhstan to Indus River ;
winters to UAE and northwestern India
[[File:Çilferşik.jpg	120px]]	Finsch's wheatear	Oenanthe finschii	Anatolia to western Central Asia ; winters to Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
[[File:Les oiseaux d'Egypte - panoramio - youssef alam (1).jpg	120px]]	Mourning wheatear	Oenanthe lugens	Middle East
[[File:Oenanthe xanthoprymna - Kurdish Wheatear, Osmaniye, Turkey 01.jpg	120px]]	Kurdish wheatear	Oenanthe xanthoprymna	Kurdistan ; winters to Red Sea and southern Arabian Peninsula
[[File:Red Tailed Wheatear.jpg	120px]]	Red-tailed wheatear	Oenanthe chrysopygia	Iran and Pakistan ; winters to Arabian peninsula and northwestern South Asia
[[File:Saharasteinschmaetzer.jpg	120px]]	White-crowned wheatear	Oenanthe leucopyga	North Africa and Middle East
[[File:Oenanthe albonigra 91218790.jpg	120px]]	Hume's wheatear	Oenanthe albonigra	Iran, eastern Oman to Indus valley
[[File:Black Wheatear - Merzouga Marocco 07 3429 (19400616192).jpg	120px]]	Black wheatear	Oenanthe leucura	Iberian Peninsula to western Libya and Mauritania
[[File:Oenanthe lugentoides.jpg	120px]]	Arabian wheatear	Oenanthe lugentoides	Arabian Peninsula
[[File:Oenanthe lugubris 1.jpg	120px]]	Abyssinian wheatear	Oenanthe lugubris	montane East Africa

Behaviour

Wheatears are terrestrial insectivorous birds of open, often dry, country. They often nest in rock crevices or disused burrows. Northern species are long-distance migrants, wintering in Africa.

Fossil record

Oenanthe kormosi (Late Miocene of Polgardi, Hungary)
Oenanthe pongraczi (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary)

References

. ["Muscicapidae"](https://www.aviansystematics.org/4th-edition-checklist?viewfamilies=183). *The Trust for Avian Systematics*.
(1960). "Check-list of Birds of the World". Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Vieillot, Louis Pierre. (1883). "Vieillot's Analyse d'une nouvelle ornithologie élémentaire".
(2010). "Shall we chat? Evolutionary relationships in the genus ''Cercomela'' (Muscicapidae) and its relation to ''Oenanthe'' reveals extensive polyphyly among chats distributed in Africa, India and the Palearctic". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
(2012). "Convergent evolution of morphological and ecological traits in the open-habitat chat complex (Aves, Muscicapidae: Saxicolinae)". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
(2013). "Taxonomic recommendations for Western Palearctic birds: ninth report". Ibis.
Jobling, James A.. (2010). "The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names". Christopher Helm.
"Wheatear". Merriam Webster Online.
AviList Core Team. (2025). "AviList: The Global Avian Checklist, v2025".
Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37–149.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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wheatears taxa-named-by-louis-pierre-vieillot

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