Mourning Wheatear

The Mourning Wheatear was first described by Lichenstein in 1823. It is an elegant and strikingly beautiful bird found in semi-desert areas in North Africa and the Middle East. It is sexually dimorphic with the females sporting more subtle plumage.

The Mourning Wheatear is classified as Least Concern. Does not qualify for a more at risk category. Widespread and abundant taxa are included in this category.

The Mourning Wheatear (Oenanthe lugens) is a bird, one of 14 species of wheatear found in the Palearctic region. It is a small passerine in a group formerly classed as members of the Thrush family Turdidae, but now more generally considered to be part of the Old World Flycatcher family Muscicapidae. The Mourning Wheatear was first described by Lichenstein in 1823. It is an elegant and strikingly beautiful bird found in semi-desert areas in North Africa and the Middle East. More

Desert Warblers and Mourning Wheatears were common and a male Finsch’s Wheatear was showing well. Some sort of wild goat was chilling in the sand and another male Finsch’s Wheatear, the third for our trip made a brief appearance so we wondered if there really are any females of this species as depicted in our bird-guide... More

Description of the black morph Mourning Wheatear in Jordan by Ian J. Andrews, 1994 = This is a slightly different version from that published in Sandgrouse 16: 32-35, 1994. An isolated population of 'black wheatears' inhabiting the basalt desert north of Azraq, previously attributed to the black-bellied, opistholeuca morph of the Eastern Pied Wheatear Oenanthe picata (Clarke, 1981; Wallace, 1983), now appear to be a morph of the Mourning Wheatear O. More

Videos and images Male mourning wheatear perched in a tree Male mourning wheatear perched in a tree Species related by - * Family group * Habitat * Conservation status * * View image slideshow * Link to this image * Email to a friend * More

Videos and images previous Mourning wheatear imageMale mourning wheatear perched in a tree © Hanne & Jens Eriksen / naturepl. More

For the purposes of our bird news services, Mourning Wheatear is classed as Common: common species, including species that are certain or probable escapees from captivity when occurring in the British Isles. (Note that rarity levels are currently applied nationally and may not reflect local variations in abundance. More

Mourning Wheatear, Egypt, Ras Mohammed National Park Oct 06 © Iain Robson Send this as a postcard Mourning Wheatear - mourning wheatear, jordan , petra jan 2008 © ian tew Send this as a postcard mourning wheatear - mourning wheatear, jordan, petra jan 2008 © ian tew Send this as a postcard mourning wheatear - Mourning Wheatear, , MOROCCO March More

Western Mourning Wheatear female, for comparison. Morocco, April - Pied Wheatear, same place 08.10.2007, for comparison - Bird 2: Putative female Pied Wheatear, Green Mubazzarah, 05.10.2007 - all photos are of the same female. More