The Cyprus wheatear or Cyprus pied wheatear (''Oenanthe cypriaca'') is a small, 14–15 cm long

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 th ...

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 lightweig ...

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 Northe ...

, Muscicapidae. It was formerly treated as a subspecies (race) of

pied wheatear The pied wheatear (''Oenanthe pleschanka'') is a wheatear, a small insectivorous 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 (family Musci ...

but Sluys and van den Berg (1982) argued that the form deserved full species status, on the basis of differences in biometrics and especially song, and the lack of sexual plumage dimorphism in ''cypriaca''. This migratory insectivorous species breeds only in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, and winters in southern Sudan and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. It has been recorded as a vagrant on Heligoland, Germany, This species closely resembles pied wheatear, although it has slightly more black on the tail and back, and on the head. The sexes are similar in appearance, a fact first documented by Christensen (1974). A 2010 study found that Cyprus wheatear differs from pied wheatear in fourteen external morphometric characters.Marc I. Förschler, Christoph Randler, Jochen Dierschke & Franz Bairlein, 2010. Morphometric diagnosability of Cyprus Wheatears Oenanthe cypriaca and an unexpected occurrence on Helgoland Island. Bird Study, Volume 57, Issue 3 August 2010 , pages 396–400. The song is distinctive, and very different from that of pied wheatear, resembling an insect. It consists of a series of high-pitched buzzing bursts. The song-perches utilised by this species are high for a wheatear, typically being 5 to 10 metres above ground. It often breeds in woodland habitats, unlike other wheatears (Oliver 1990 suggested that it occupies the ecological niche used elsewhere in the

Western Palearctic The Western Palaearctic or Western Palearctic is part of the Palaearctic realm, one of the eight biogeographic realms dividing the Earth's surface. Because of its size, the Palaearctic is often divided for convenience into two, with Europe, North ...

by the

common redstart The common redstart (''Phoenicurus phoenicurus''), or often simply redstart, is a small passerine bird in the genus '' Phoenicurus''. Like its relatives, it was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family, (Turdidae), but is now known to be ...

). It is the most arboreal species of wheatear in the western palearctic and it uses often aerial sallying and perch-pounce-feeding tactics. Recent work suggest an ecological differentiation between Cyprus wheatear and migrating northern wheatears ''O. oenanthe'' and black-eared wheatears ''O. hispanica melanoleuca''. Cyprus wheatear uses more aerial sallying and occupies more forested habitats, but needs a minimum amount of open/bare ground, and a minimum of high bush/tree vegetation (Randler et al. 2009Randler, C.,Teichmann, C., & Pentzold, S. (2009) Breeding habitat preference and foraging of the Cyprus Wheatear ''Oenanthe cypriaca'' and niche partitioning in comparison with migrant ''Oenanthe'' species on Cyprus.

Journal of Ornithology The ''Journal of Ornithology'' (formerly ''Journal für Ornithologie'') is a scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media on behalf of the Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft. It was founded by Jean Cabanis in 1853, becoming the ...

151:113–121. 10.1007/s10336-009-0432-0).

Gallery

Cyprus wheatear (Oenanthe cypriaca) juvenile.jpg, juvenile Cyprus wheatear (Oenanthe cypriaca) juvenile 2.jpg, juvenile Cyprus wheatear (Oenanthe cypriaca) juvenile sub adult.jpg, juvenile/sub-adult

Gallery

References

Further reading