One of the 4 wheatears on WAnimals
Birds · Passeriformes · Muscicapidae
Black Wheatear
Oenanthe leucura
Least Concern
The species is abundant and widely distributed; it faces no significant short-term risk.
The black wheatear is a bird of rocky places in Iberia and North Africa, black with a white rump and tail base. It is resident and highly territorial, and occupies cliffs, gorges and sunny stony slopes. Its most striking behaviour is stone-carrying: both sexes carry small stones to the crevice where they are going to breed and build a platform with them that can weigh many times what the bird itself does.
Weight
30 g – 45 g
Size
16 cm – 18 cm
Life expectancy
8 years
