Oenanthe fusca
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The brown rock chat (Oenanthe fusca) or Indian chat is a bird species of the family Muscicapidae. It is found mainly in northern and central India. It is often found in old buildings and rocky areas. It resembles a female Indian robin but lacks the reddish vent and differs in posture and behaviour apart from being larger. In flight it bears some resemblance to thrushes and redstarts. It feeds on insects, captured mainly on the ground. It was formerly placed as the sole species in the genus Cercomela but is now included with the wheatears in the genus Oenanthe.
In central India, the local name of Shama has been noted. The brown rock chat is about 17 cm long, larger than the somewhat similar-looking Indian robin. It is uniformly rufous brown with the wings and tail of a slightly darker shade. The brown on the undersides grades into a dark grey-brown vent. The beak is slender and is slightly curved at the tip. The second primary is the longest and the tail is rounded. In flight it resembles a female blue rock thrush. The sexes are indistinguishable in the field.
The species is nearly endemic to India, distributed north of the Narmada,... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 2 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 3 | Satpura National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 4 | Jim Corbett National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 5 | Royal Bardia National Park | 🇳🇵 Nepal | |
| 6 | Bandhavgarh National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 7 | Kanha National Park | 🇮🇳 India |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Chat sighting in Bandhavgarh National Park on a given day, based on 42 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 156th most-seen of the 241 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January, April, June and November
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Chat in Bandhavgarh National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–March, May, July–October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Bandhavgarh National Park's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 400 mm in August.
Between 3 and 6 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Indian Chat sightings with a recorded time, and about half of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
6th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Indian Chat sightings, Bandhavgarh National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Ranthambore National Park (India, about 20%), Keoladeo National Park (India, about 10%) and Satpura National Park (India, about 10%).
Same family: Muscicapidae
The closest relatives of the Indian Chat that you can see in Bandhavgarh National Park (family Muscicapidae, Old World Flycatchers, Robins, and Chats) are Oriental Magpie-Robin (about 70%), Indian Robin (about 50%) and Tickell's Blue Flycatcher (about 50%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Indian Chat is recorded against all the birds logged in Bandhavgarh National Park (42 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.
