Hume's Wheatear
Oenanthe albonigra
Large wheatear with dark black head and back, and pure white breast and belly. Sexes alike. Extremely similar to the male of the picata form of Variable Wheatear, but Hume’s Wheatear is larger, with a larger bill and longer wings, and the black doesn’t extend past the throat, while the white extends farther up the back. Inhabits barren hills and rocky slopes, where it forages on the ground for invertebrates. The song is thrush-like with some sweet and buzzy notes. The call is a harsh “chuk.”
Taxonomy
Hume's wheatear was formally described in 1872 by the British naturalist Allan Octavian Hume from specimens collected on rocky slopes in what is now southern Pakistan. He placed it with the chats in the genus Saxicola and coined the binomial name Saxicola alboniger. Hume's wheatear is now placed with 32 other species in the genus Oenanthe that was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Vieillot in 1816. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Oenanthe albonigra
- Authority
- (Hume, 1872)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Muscicapidae
- Genus
- Oenanthe
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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