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Alternative names: Red-tailed Wheatear and Persian Wheatear
- Oenanthe xanthoprymna
Photo taken: Jebel Hafeet, United Arab Emirates
The photo shows a bird of subspecies chrysopygia.
Photo taken: Maale Efraym, Israel
The photo shows a male of subspecies xanthoprymna.
Includes Rusty-tailed or Afghan Wheatear and Kurdish, Kurdistan or Chestnut-rumped Wheatear
Identification
Subspecies xanthoprymna is the form with a black throat, dark underwing coverts, and white tail sides, that breeds from southern Turkey to southwestern Iran. Subspecies chrysopygia is the nondescript grey-brown form with rufous tail sides and pale underwing coverts, that breeds from Transcaucasia to Afghanistan1.
Distribution
Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen. The countries in this list that are not included in the breeding ranges given above are visited in winter or in vagrancy.
Taxonomy
Two subspecies are recognized2, xanthoprymna and chrysopygia.
A proposed split would separate this species into two: "Red-tailed", "Rusty-tailed" or "Afghan" would probably always apply to chrysopygia; "Kurdish", "Kurdistan" or "Chestnut-rumped" would be xanthoprymna; "Red-rumped" is also sometimes used for this form, but obviously offers confusion with Oenanthe moesta (then renamed "Buff-rumped")1.
Habitat
Behaviour
References
- Birdforum thread discussing this species and the possible split.
- Clements, James F. 2007. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to October 2007. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801445019
