Northern Wheatear

The northern wheatear is a small chat, 14.5–16cm long with a wingspan of 26–32cm and a weight of 17–30g. Both sexes have a white rump and tail with a black inverted T at the tail tip; the name is an altered form of white-arse. The summer male has grey upperparts, a buff throat and black wings and face mask, and in autumn looks like the female apart from its black wings. The female is pale brown above and buff below with darker brown wings. Its call is a typical chat chack (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is the most widespread wheatear in Europe and northern and Central Asia, breeding in open stony country and nesting in rock crevices and rabbit burrows. It makes one of the longest journeys of any small bird: birds from across Eurasia, Greenland, Alaska and Canada all return to spend the winter in Africa, crossing ocean, ice and desert (Wikipedia, general species account).