Variable Wheatear

How to identify

Field marks

1. Black-bellied morph male with a white rump
2. Black-bellied morph male with a black tail tip
3. White-bellied morph male with a white belly
4. White-crowned morph male with a white crown and nape

Male, female and young

In the female of the white-bellied morph, the black areas are replaced by gray-brown, and the belly has more of a pale yellowish-brown tinge.

Where and when it's recorded

Busiest months: October–November · Most records: India, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan

Variable Wheatear has been recorded at 44 of the 8,276 birding hotspots we track, in 10 countries and regions.

Records by month Northern Hemisphere

Where it's recorded most

1. Wamm FarmsUnited Arab Emirates708 records
2. Tal Chhapar SanctuaryIndia605 records
3. Nalsarovar OutskirtsIndia120 records

Countries and regions with the most records

IndiaUnited Arab EmiratesPakistanNepalIranTajikistanUzbekistanAfghanistan

eBird records via GBIF up to 2024-12-31. A record means someone listed it; more records partly mean more birders, not more birds.

About

The variable wheatear (Oenanthe picata) is a species of bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is found in Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, and Uzbekistan.

Excerpt from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0 · authors · Read more on Wikipedia

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