The black wheatear (''Oenanthe leucura'') is a

wheatear 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, bu ...

, a small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an

Old World flycatcher The Old World flycatchers are a large family, the Muscicapidae, of small passerine birds restricted to the Old World (Europe, Africa and Asia), with the exception of several vagrants and two species, Bluethroat (''Luscinia svecica)'' and Norther ...

of the Muscicapidae. This large 16–18 cm long wheatear breeds on cliffs and rocky slopes in western north

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. It is largely resident and nests in crevices in rocks laying 3-6 eggs. Oenanthe leucura MWNH 1854

The male of this species is all black except a white rump and mainly white tail. The female is similar, but dark brown rather than black. The similar

white-crowned wheatear The white-crowned wheatear, or white-crowned black wheatear (''Oenanthe leucopyga'') is a wheatear, a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old Wor ...

, ''Oenanthe leucopyga,'' also breeds in the African part of the black wheatear's range, but the black wheatear has a black inverted "T" on its white tail, whereas white-crowned has only a black centre to its tail. The black wheatear never has a white crown, but young white-crowned wheatears also lack this feature. The food of this wheatear is mainly insects. It has a loud thrush-like song.

References

External links

Ageing and sexing (PDF; 2.6 MB) by Javier Blasco-Zumeta & Gerd-Michael Heinze

black wheatear The black wheatear (''Oenanthe leucura'') is a wheatear, a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher of the Muscicapidae. This ...

Birds of Europe Birds of North Africa

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