Claim: The Cyprus wheatear, which resembles the pied wheatear except in 14 external morphometric characters, has a distinctive song, which is commonly found in Cyprus, the third most populous island in the Mediterranean.
Evidence: It was formerly treated as a subspecies (race) of pied wheatear but Sluys and van den Berg (1982) argued that the form deserved full species status, on the basis of differences in biometrics and especially song, and the lack of sexual plumage dimorphism in cypriaca. A 2010 study found that Cyprus wheatear differs from pied wheatear in fourteen external morphometric characters. The song is distinctive, and very different from that of pied wheatear, resembling an insect. This migratory insectivorous species breeds only in Cyprus, and winters in southern Sudan and Ethiopia. It is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, and is located north of Egypt; northwest of Lebanon, Palestine, and Israel; west of Syria; southeast of Greece; and south of Turkey.