White-crowned Wheatear Oenanthe leucopyga Scientific name definitions

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)terminal band; flight feathers blackish; bill and legs black. Sexes similar. Juvenile is duller than adult, with all-black crown ; glossier first-year retains black crown, sometimes with some white feathers, e.g. on supercilium. Race <em>ernesti</em> is larger and generally more glossy blue than nominate.

Editor's Note: This article requires further editing work to merge existing content into the appropriate Subspecies sections. Please bear with us while this update takes place.

Editor's Note: Additional distribution information for this taxon can be found in the 'Subspecies' article above. In the future we will develop a range-wide distribution article.

Breeding range lies almost entirely within driest and hottest areas of Africa and S Middle East, bordered by 30°C July isotherm, with annual precipitation c. 25–30 mm. The only wheatear occupying all mountainous areas across whole of Sahara Desert, from foothills to c. 3000 m. In such areas of scant vegetation, the few bushes are usually less than 1·5 m high. Also found in areas of rock and stone deserts with boulders and deep dry riverbeds, lava fields, wadis, hills, screes, stony slopes, cliffs, ravines and ruins, more locally on outcrops, in gulleys and by steep banks in flat desert; occasionally in sandy desert, and locally in areas with annual rainfall up to 150 mm. Prefers more sheltered, broken terrain with sparser vegetation than that inhabited by O. monacha and O. lugens. At oases utilizes palm groves, cultivated plots, buildings and cemeteries.

Sedentary; also local migrant. In NW Africa may move S in winter, with local increases in numbers in S Tunisia Sept–Feb; sometimes vacates poorest habitats in dry season. In Israel young may disperse S out of country for winter; some descend to lower elevations during Oct–Mar. In Arabian Peninsula occasionally wanders well away from usual breeding range. Rare vagrant S Europe, Asia Minor and Kuwait; one anomalous record in NW Europe (Britain).

Invertebrates , small vertebrates, some fruit. Beetles (including Buprestidae and tenebrionid larvae), crickets, ant-lions, small wasps, aphids, grasshoppers (including adult locusts Schistocerca gregaria), caterpillars, butterflies  , dung-dwelling insects, and especially ants and flies; also worms, and ticks and other parasites on camels. Locusts and lizards (including Lacertidae and Gekkonidae; tails of latter eaten) targeted in most barren tracts; in Rum Desert, in Jordan, seen to eat scorpions and the poisonous locust Poekiloceros bufonius; in Niger, geckos and small viper Cerastes. Will also take scraps, such as meat, dates, flour and pomegranate seeds, thrown by Bedouin peoples. Food in E Arabia almost entirely insects, particularly flies, adult and larval lepidopterans, grasshoppers and locusts, beetles and ants, but darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) and large ants avoided; berries of Ochrademus baccatus seen taken. Other plant material recorded includes sumach (Rhus oxycantha) and grass seeds. Stomachs of five birds from C Morocco, Nov, all held ants, mixed with beetles and grasshoppers; stomachs from Niger, Jul–Aug, held flies, ants and grass seeds. In two observations young provisioned particularly with larvae, in one year caterpillars of striped hawkmoth (Hyles lineata). Forages by scanning from perch and flying to ground to take prey, also by bounding over ground and grabbing it; also digs for larvae with bill, sallies after flying insects, and sometimes hover-plucks berries.

Song (mainly by male at dawn and dusk, but female and even young occasionally sing; from perch, occasionally in flight) distinctive, rich and fluty  , a series of short phrases (1·5–2 seconds long) with longer pauses (3–9 seconds), each phrase consisting of whistled, slurred or slightly trilled notes, commonly “viet-viet-dreeit-deit”, with many variations and types, including distinctive ringing, bell-like “teu-link teu-link”; sometimes with mimicry, but (unlike other wheatears) with few, if any, harsh chacking sounds. Subsong quieter, more continuous and with more chuckling or chacking sounds, often given while loafing; courtship subsong a strangulated mix of squeaks, wheezy whistles, throaty rattles, clicks, creaks, jingling and hissing. Calls include high piercing “sweek” and harsh “jrak” in alarm, the two often interspersed; long quavering “hroo-oo” by male in display; grating buzz; and “juwee” as enticement to young.

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 early Jun in Israel and Feb–Jul in Arabian Peninsula; sometimes two broods, but in Sinai does not breed at all in years of severe drought. Lifelong pair-bond. Sometimes forms loose colonies, e.g. in Morocco, and in Sinai these may be rather compact, with average territory size as small as 0·4 ha; in E Arabia may include up to 4–5 pairs, with territories 4·8–9·1 ha (average 6·7 ha); territory size in Israel 10–50 ha; territory held all year. Nest a loose, sometimes large cup of dried grass, slender twigs and bark, lined with wool, hair, feathers or plant down, placed 0·2–4 m (once 15 m) up in usually deep rock cleft, hole in bank, wall or building, once in base of old nest of Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and sometimes 1·5 m below ground level in wall of well; pebbles deposited as part-support and pathway to nest, which may be used in successive years. Eggs 3–5, rarely 2–6 (clutch size varying with location and climatic conditions), creamy-white or pale greenish to bluish, with reddish-brown freckles and sometimes pinkish-lilac blotches; incubation period 14–15 days; nestling period 14–16 days; post-fledging dependence c. 3 weeks, sometimes involving brood division; when double-brooded, fledglings may stay on territory and help to feed young of second brood; female sometimes lays second clutch while first brood still in nest, leaving male to feed them. First breeding at 1 year.

Not globally threatened. Nominate race sometimes rather local but generally abundant in suitable habitat; density varies, presumably with habitat quality. In Morocco common in S, and density in one area 0·6 pairs/km²; rare in two regions, Tunisia. Breeding range extended N in Algeria and Tunisia in 1920s and again in 1960s-1970s, possibly in response to increasing desertification. Race ernesti locally common to very common; in Egypt , common in oases of Western Desert, along Nile Valley, in Eastern Desert and in Sinai. Putative density 15 pairs/km² in Arabia. Revered by Bedouin tribes. Sometimes becomes rather tame.