Small and slim with a strong rusty-brown wing panel, resembles a small and beautified Greater Whitethroat. The male has a gray hood, white puffy throat, black in front of the eye, conspicuous white eyering, and white mustache. Females best told from Greater Whitethroat by short wings and dark centers to the tertials. Breeds in low bushes and scrub including salt flats; winters in similar habitats as well as tamarisk thickets and oases. Shy, but given its choice of habitat, often has nowhere to really hide. Normally sings from the tops of bushes or in flight, giving tuneful whistles with harsher, rattled notes.