Family Old World Flycatchers and Chats (Muscicapidae)

Least Concern

White-crowned Wheatear (Oenanthe leucopyga)

Taxonomy

French: Traquet à tête blanche German: Saharasteinschmätzer Spanish: Collalba yebélica

Other common names: White-tailed Wheatear

Taxonomy:

Vitiflora leucopyga

C. L. Brehm

, 1855,

Kurusku, Upper Egypt

Geographical variation possibly clinal; some specimens of nominate race along Red Sea coast indistinguishable from ernesti. Proposed race aegra (W & C Sahara) synonymized with nominate. Two subspecies recognized.

Subspecies and Distribution

O. l. leucopyga (C. L. Brehm, 1855) – W & C Sahara E to Egypt and Sudan, Eritrea and Djibouti.

O. l. ernesti R. Meinertzhagen, 1930 – S Israel, W & S Jordan and NE Egypt (Sinai) S to C & E Arabia, possibly also Yemen and Oman.

Descriptive notes

17 cm; 23–39 g. Nominate race is glossy black, with white crown (above eye), vent, rump and tail, latter with black central feathers and sometimes a suggestion of (sub)... read more

Voice

Song (mainly by male at dawn and dusk, but female and even young occasionally sing; from perch,... read more

Habitat

Breeding range lies almost entirely within driest and hottest areas of Africa and S Middle East,... read more

Food and feeding

Invertebrates, small vertebrates, some fruit. Beetles (including Buprestidae and tenebrionid larvae), crickets, ant-lions, small wasps,... read more

Breeding

Jan–Feb in Mauritania; Jan–May in N Africa and Sudan, apparent peak Mar–Apr in NW; Mar–Jul in C Sahara; end Feb to... read more

Movements

Sedentary; also local migrant. In NW Africa may move S in winter, with local increases in numbers... read more

Status and conservation

Not globally threatened. Nominate race sometimes rather local but generally abundant in suitable habitat; density varies, presumably with habitat quality. In Morocco common... read more

Bibliography

Public comments

Scientific classification

Class: Aves

Order: Passeriformes

Family: Muscicapidae

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In past, traditionally treated as an outsize family that also included expanded versions of Sylviidae, Timaliidae and Turdidae; these three were subsequently split off as three separate families, but still in much expanded form as compared to their current treatment. Since publication of HBW, limits of all these families have been dramatically rewritten due to a barrage of occasionally contradictory molecular data. Within present family problems remain, particularly due to incomplete taxon sampling, but near-complete screening to species level has now been attempted for at least a handful of genera (notably Oenanthe and Saxicola), and large elements of consensus have emerged, among them the recognition of four principal lineages, here treated as subfamilies. Most notable development involves transfer of many genera from Turdidae to present family, including Alethe, Cichladusa, Heteroxenicus, Brachypteryx, Heinrichia, Myophonus, Monticola, Thamnolaea, Myrmecocichla, Pogonocichla, Swynnertonia, Stiphrornis, Sheppardia, Cossypha, Xenocopsychus, Irania, Luscinia, Erithacus, Tarsiger, Cercotrichas, Copsychus, Phoenicurus, Saxicola and Oenanthe. Genetic sampling has also revealed extensive paraphyly, with the result that many species have switched genera. Some genera have disappeared completely into synonymy (e.g. Erythropygia), and others have shrunk to just one or two species (e.g. Luscinia), while a few have become substantially larger (e.g. Cercotrichas, Oenanthe).

Subfamily: Saxicolinae

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Apart from Vauriella and Ficedula, all genera previously placed in Turdidae.

Genus: Oenanthe Vieillot, 1816

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Extensively tested in recent molecular studies, where some species complexes show very low (sometimes virtually no) genetic differentiation, making assessment of species limits using such methodology alone extremely difficult#R #R #R #R #R #R; this research has also revealed notable paraphyly with other closely related genera, resulting in: inclusion herein of most species formerly treated in Cercomela, and one hitherto placed in Pentholaea, as well as removal of one species from Oenanthe to Myrmecocichla.

See full taxonomic structure and notes