Oenanthe dubia
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The sombre rock chat (Oenanthe dubia) is a species of passerine bird in the family Muscicapidae. It is native to montane desert of central Ethiopia and possibly far-western Somalia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.
The sombre rock chat was formerly included in the genus Cercomela. Molecular phylogenetic studies published in 2010 and 2012 found that the genus Cercomela was polyphyletic with five species, including the sombre rock chat, phylogenetically nested within the genus Oenanthe. As part of a reorganization of the species to create monotypic genera, the sombre rock chat was moved to the genus Oenanthe. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Sombre Chat sighting in Awash National Park on a given day, based on 54 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 30th most-seen of the 217 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and November
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Sombre Chat in Awash National Park on a given day, against about 20% in April, the lowest month. Those are among Awash National Park's wettest months, with about 65 mm of rain a month against 10 mm in January. February–March, May and September have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sombre Chat sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Awash National Park, in our data
Awash National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Sombre Chat sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Oenanthe
The closest relatives of the Sombre Chat that you can see in Awash National Park (genus Oenanthe, Wheatears and Allies) are Isabelline Wheatear (about 60%), Pied Wheatear (about 40%) and Blackstart (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sombre Chat is recorded against all the birds logged in Awash National Park (54 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
