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Oenanthe leucopyga

Oenanthe leucopyga (*)

Cladus: Eukaryota
Supergroup: Opisthokonta
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Deuterostomia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Infraphylum: Gnathostomata
Superclassis: Tetrapoda
Classis: Aves
Subclassis: Carinatae
Infraclassis: Neornithes
Parvclassis: Neognathae
Ordo: Passeriformes
Subordo: Passeri
Parvordo: Passerida
Superfamilia: Muscicapoidea
Familia: Muscicapidae
Genus: Oenanthe
Species: Oenanthe leucopyga
Subspecies: O. l. aegra - O. l. ernesti - O. l. leucopyga

Name

Oenanthe leucopyga (C.L. Brehm, 1855)

Reference

Der vollstandige Vogelfang. p.225

Vernacular Names

Ελληνικά: Λευκόπυγος Πετρόκλης
English: White-crowned Wheatear

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The White-crowned Wheatear, or White-crowned Black Wheatear, Oenanthe leucopyga, is a wheatear, a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the Thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae.

This large 17–18 cm long wheatear breeds in stony deserts from the Sahara and Arabia across to Iraq. It is largely resident but as occurred as a rare vagrant to western Europe as far away as Great Britain. It nests in crevices in rocks or walls laying 3-5 eggs.

Although most wheatear species have distinctive male and female plumages, adults of both sexes of this species are black except for a white rump and mainly white tail. Full adults have a white crown, not shown by young birds.

The similar Black Wheatear, Oenanthe leucura, also breeds in the western part of the White-crowned Wheatear's range, but the latter has a black inverted T on its white tail, whereas White-crowned has only a black centre to its tail. The Black Wheatear never has a white crown.

This species mainly eats insects. This wheatear has a loud song, more varied than most of its relatives and often including mimicry.

References

* BirdLife International (2004). Oenanthe leucopyga. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern

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Source: Wikispecies:, Wikipedia All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License