Desert Wheatear

The desert wheatear is a small chat, 14.5–15cm long. The summer male is sandy buff above, white below with a buff wash on the breast, with a white eyebrow and black on the face and throat that joins the black of the wings at the shoulder. The female is greyer above and buffer below, with no black on the throat. In every plumage the tail is black almost to the upper tail coverts, with only its base white, a good mark against other wheatears (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a migratory, insect-eating chat that picks most of its food off the ground. The western form breeds in the Sahara and northern Arabia, and the eastern form in the semi-deserts of Central Asia, wintering in Pakistan and north-east Africa. It breeds in spring, laying usually four pale blue, slightly speckled eggs in a well-hidden grass nest (Wikipedia, general species account).