Wheatear
The wheatears are passerine birds of the genus Oenanthe. They were formerly considered to be members of the thrush family, Turdidae, but are now more commonly placed in the flycatcher family, Muscicapidae. This is an Old World group, but the northern wheatear has established a foothold in eastern Canada and Greenland and in western Canada and Alaska. Etymology. The name "wheatear" is not derived from "wheat" or any sense of "ear", but is a folk etymology of "white" and "arse", referring to the prominent white rump found in most species. The genus name "Oenanthe" is derived from the Greek  oenos (οἶνος) "wine" and "anthos" (ἄνθος) "flower". It refers to the northern wheatear's return to Greece in the spring just as the grapevines blossom. Taxonomy. The genus "Oenanthe" was introduced by the French ornithologist Louis Jean Pierre Vieillot in 1816 with "Oenanthe leucura", the black wheatear, as the type species. The genus formerly included fewer species but molecular phylogenetic studies of birds in the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae found that the genus "Cercomela" was polyphyletic with five species, including the type species "C. melanura", phylogenetically nested within the genus "Oenanthe". This implied that "Cercomela" and "Oenanthe" were synonyms . The genus "Oenanthe" (Vieillot, 1816) has taxonomic priority over "Cercomela" (Bonaparte, 1856) making "Cercomela" a junior synonym. Nonetheless, "Cercomela" is considered a valid genus on the Clements Checklist of Birds of the World, managed by the Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology. Description. Most species have characteristic black and white or red and white markings on their rumps or their long tails. Most species are strongly sexually dimorphic; only the male has the striking plumage patterns characteristic of the genus, though the females share the white or red rump patches. Species list. The genus contains 32 species: Behaviour. Wheatears are terrestrial  insectivorous birds of open, often dry, country. They often nest in rock crevices or disused burrows. Northern species are long-distance migrants, wintering in Africa.