Oenanthe fusca
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Chat sighting in Jim Corbett National Park on a given day, based on 231 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 118th most-seen of the 368 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report an Indian Chat in Jim Corbett National Park on a given day, against under 5% in May, July and September, the lowest months. Those are among Jim Corbett National Park's driest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 360 mm in July.
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.
4th of 7
Of the 7 parks where we can rate Indian Chat sightings, Jim Corbett National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. 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 Jim Corbett National Park (family Muscicapidae, Old World Flycatchers, Robins, and Chats) are Blue Whistling-Thrush (about 50%), Pied Bushchat (about 40%) and Grey Bushchat (about 40%), 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 Jim Corbett National Park (231 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.
