Red-tailed Wheatear

The red-tailed wheatear, also known as the rusty-tailed, Persian or Afghan wheatear, is a small passerine breeding in mountainous areas of south-west and central Asia, 14.5 cm long with a wingspan of 26–27 cm and weighing 20–27 g. The plumage is fairly drab, mainly grey-brown above and greyish-white below. It belongs to the wheatear genus Oenanthe, formerly placed in the thrush family and now in the Old World flycatchers (Wikipedia, general species account).

It breeds from north-east Turkey, Armenia and Azerbaijan eastwards through Iran to Afghanistan, southern Tajikistan and western Pakistan, and migrates south to winter in the Arabian Peninsula, Eritrea, southern parts of Iraq and Iran, Pakistan and north-west India. It nests on steep, barren, rocky ground with little vegetation and usually forages on bare ground, feeding mainly on insects such as ants, beetles and caterpillars. The song is a simple repeated whistle. Four to six eggs are incubated for 13 days. SoIB 2023 lists it as a winter migrant of grassland and scrub that eats invertebrates, without a priority category (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).