Red-tailed wheatear

Description

The red-tailed wheatear (Oenanthe chrysopygia),also known as the rusty-tailed wheatear,Persian wheatear or Afghan wheatear,is a small passerine bird breeding in mountainous areas of south-west and central Asia.It belongs to the wheatear genus Oenanthe which was formerly placed in the thrush family Turdidae but is now in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae.The red-tailed wheatear used to be considered a subspecies of the Kurdish wheatear (O.xanthoprymna) but is now often regarded as a separate species.It is 14.5 cm long with a wingspan of 26–27 cm and a weight of about 20-27 g.The plumage is fairly drab,mainly grey-brown above and greyish-white below.It has a faint pale stripe over the eye,a rufous tinge to the ear-coverts and silvery-white underwing-coverts.The rump and bases of the outer tail-feathers are reddish while the rest of the tail is black forming a T-shaped pattern.There is little difference between males and females but the male has black between the eye and bill.The female Kurdistan wheatear can be very similar but usually has white bases to the outer tail-feathers.Adult males and some females of the Kurdistan wheatear are quite different with a black face and throat and greyer upperparts.The song is a simple repeated whistle.The bird has several clicking,rasping and whistling calls.