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Isabelline Wheatears are medium-sized wheatears, which are roughly robin-sized birds. As opposed to many other wheatears, the two sexes of this species look alike. The only minor difference is that males have black lores, while those of females are brown. Both sexes have a brownish-grey head, with white to creamy eyebrows that meet at the base of the bill. The ear coverts are yellowish-brown, while the chin is white to off-white. The front is creamy to buff, with creamy vent and undertail coverts. The back is brownish-grey to rufous-grey, with dark-grey flight feathers with buff edge-lining. The uppertail is dark-grey. The irises are dark; the straight, pointy bill is grey and the legs and feet are dark-grey. Juvenile birds have duller colours than adults, with less colour contrast.

The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org .

The global distribution of the Isabelline Wheatear is available HERE .

The range of the Isabelline Wheatear extends from the fringes of the Sahara desert (and some oases in the desert), parts of eastern Africa, from Egypt to Kenya/Tanzania, via Arabia to western India. Further North, they are found from parts of south-eastern Europe, via Asia Minor into southern, south-western and central Asia, including much of Kazakhstan and Mongolia, and parts of central China.
There are some reports of vagrant Isabelline Wheatears from southern and eastern England, the coastline of the southern North Sea and the Baltic Sea and even from Shetland.

In Europe Isabelline Wheatears are found basically only in the South-east, from Greece via Bulgaria to southern Uraine, but there are a few reports of vagrants further North (see above).

Isabelline Wheatears have a preference for often rock-strewn short grass plains and slopes, in semi-arid regions on the border between steppe and semi-desert.

I. Chisnall reports finding an Isabelline Wheatear near Enisala, Romania, in July 2019.

Other photos shown below were taken in Egypt (November 2017) and Georgia (June 2018), respectively.