Isabelline Wheatear

The isabelline wheatear is a pale chat, 15–16.5cm long, with sandy-brown upperparts with a parchment-coloured tinge, the isabelline shade that gives it its name, a white rump, a creamy eyebrow and buff to creamy underparts. The tail is brownish-black with a large white base. It resembles a female northern wheatear but is larger, more upright and more tawny, with more black in the tail and white rather than grey-mottled underwing coverts. The sexes look alike (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a migratory, insect-eating bird of steppe and open countryside, breeding from southern Russia and Central Asia to northern Pakistan and wintering in Africa and north-western India. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe. In India it is a winter migrant with a moderate range. SoIB 2023 estimates a long-term decline of about 69% and a current fall of about 5% a year, and rates it a High conservation priority (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).