• 

  Profile

• 

  In flight

Songbirds

Isabelline Wheatear

Oenanthe isabellina

• rare
• 55 km/h
• Least Concern

Sandy-pale steppe specialist with a long-legged stance. Delivers from the dry edge of nowhere.

Population

Very large and stable; BirdLife/Wikipedia cite roughly 26 million to 378 million individuals across an extensive breeding+wintering range of ~11.7 million km²

Habitat

Open steppe, semi-desert, barren tracts, arid stony/sandy plains and high plateaux with sparse low vegetation on breeding grounds; similar semi-arid scrubland with sparse cover in winter quarters

Fun fact

The Isabelline Wheatear nests underground in abandoned burrows dug by pikas, ground squirrels, or mole rats rather than excavating its own, and its name traces to Neo-Latin "isabellinus" (greyish-yellow/parchment color), popularly linked to a legendary vow of Isabella I of Castile.

Range

Breeds from southern Russia and the Caspian region across Central Asia (incl. Mongolia) to Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, and northern Pakistan; winters mainly in the Sahel/East Africa and northwestern India/Pakistan; a rare vagrant to western Europe

Diet

Primarily insectivorous — ants, grasshoppers, beetles, moths, flies, mites, spiders, and insect larvae picked from the ground — with occasional small seeds

Size

0.16 m

Wingspan

0.29 m

Lifespan

8.8 years