Wheatear

The wheatears Template:IPAc-en 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref name=outlaw2010>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name=outlaw2010/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 33 species:<ref name=ioc>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Image	Common Name	Scientific Name	Distribution
File:Oenanthe oenanthe 01 II.jpg	Northern wheatear	Oenanthe oenanthe	Holarctic ; winters to Sub-Saharan Africa
File:Oenanthe seebohmi, Morocco 1.jpg	Atlas wheatear	Oenanthe seebohmi	Maghreb ; winters in western Sahel
File:Capped Wheatear, Oenanthe pileata, at Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Northern Cape, South Africa (36045617096).jpg	Capped wheatear	Oenanthe pileata	southern Sub-Saharan Africa
-	Buff-breasted wheatear	Oenanthe bottae	Asir Mountains
File:2009-0726-OenaBott-Ethiopia-LakeTana-170.jpg	Rusty-breasted wheatear	Oenanthe frenata	Ethiopian Highlands
File:Isabelline wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina) male, non-breeding.jpg	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	Hooded wheatear	Oenanthe monacha	Middle- ast
File:Desert Wheatear (Oenanthe deserti) (8079430894).jpg	Desert wheatear	Oenanthe deserti	Maghreb and central Asia ; winters to North Africa, Middle East and South Asia
File:CollalbaRubia.jpg	Western black-eared wheatear	Oenanthe hispanica	western Mediterranean ; winters to western Sahel
File:Pied Wheatear (Oenanthe pleschanka) (8079431820).jpg	Pied wheatear	Oenanthe pleschanka	central Asia ; winters to East Africa
File:Oostelijke-blonde-tapuit-3-2 (28541306412).jpg	Eastern black-eared wheatear	Oenanthe melanoleuca	eastern Mediterranean ; winters to eastern Sahel
File:Cyprus Wheatear, Avagas, Cyprus 1.jpg	Cyprus wheatear	Oenanthe cypriaca	Cyprus
File:Oenanthe albifrons.jpg	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	Red-rumped wheatear	Oenanthe moesta	Morocco to Jordan; partly winters to eastern Saudi Arabia
File:Blackstart-2006.01.04 m217.jpg	Blackstart	Oenanthe melanura	Sahel and Red Sea region
File:Familiar Chat.jpg	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:Brown Rock-chat (Cercomela fusca) कैलो रबिन 1.jpg	Brown rock chat	Oenanthe fusca	northern South Asia
File:Variable wheatear (Oenanthe picata picata) male.jpg	Variable wheatear	Oenanthe picata	from eastern Iran and southern Kazakhstan to Indus river ; winters to UAE and northwestern India
File:Çilferşik.jpg	Finsch's wheatear	Oenanthe finschii	Anatolia to western Central Asia ; winters to Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan
File:Maghreb wheatear (Oenanthe halophila) Kebili.jpg	Maghreb wheatear	Oenanthe halophila	Maghreb
File:Les oiseaux d'Egypte - panoramio - youssef alam (1).jpg	Mourning wheatear	Oenanthe lugens	Middle East
File:Basalt wheatear, Oenanthe warriae, Lior Kislev 1.jpg	Basalt wheatear	Oenanthe warriae	basalt desert of eastern Jordan and southern Syria
File:Oenanthe xanthoprymna - Kurdish Wheatear, Osmaniye, Turkey 01.jpg	Kurdish wheatear	Oenanthe xanthoprymna	Kurdistan ; winters to Red Sea and southern Arabian Peninsula
File:Red Tailed Wheatear.jpg	Red-tailed wheatear	Oenanthe chrysopygia	Iran and Pakistan ; winters to Arabian peninsula and northwestern South Asia
File:Saharasteinschmaetzer.jpg	White-crowned wheatear	Oenanthe leucopyga	North Africa and Middle East
File:Oenanthe albonigra 91218790.jpg	Hume's wheatear	Oenanthe albonigra	Iran, eastern Oman to Indus valley
File:Black Wheatear - Merzouga Marocco 07 3429 (19400616192).jpg	Black wheatear	Oenanthe leucura	Iberian Peninsula to western Libya and Mauritania
File:Oenanthe lugentoides.jpg	Arabian wheatear	Oenanthe lugentoides	Arabian Peninsula
File:Oenanthe lugubris 1.jpg	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) <ref name="Kessler, E 2013">Kessler, E. 2013. Neogene songbirds (Aves, Passeriformes) from Hungary. – Hantkeniana, Budapest, 2013, 8: 37–149.</ref>
• Oenanthe pongraczi (Pliocene of Csarnota, Hungary) <ref name="Kessler, E 2013"/>