Oenanthe isabellina
Silhouette: PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
The isabelline wheatear (Oenanthe isabellina) is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher in the family Muscicapidae. It is a migratory insectivorous bird. Its habitat is steppe and open countryside and it breeds in southern Russia and Central Asia to northern Pakistan, wintering in Africa and northwestern India. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe.
In colouring it resembles a female northern wheatear but it is larger at 15–16.5 centimetres (5.9–6.5 in) in length, more upright and more tawny in colour, and has more black on its tail. The term isabelline refers to the parchment-like colouration. The axillaries and underwing coverts are white, whereas in the commoner bird they are mottled with grey. The sexes are similar.
The name is from the specific isabellinus, Neo-Latin for "greyish-yellow", and is likely in reference to Isabella I of Castile, who is said to have promised not to change her undergarments until Spain was freed from the Moors. "Wheatear" is not derived from "wheat" or any sense of "ear", but is a 16th-century linguistic... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 2 | Awash National Park | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia | |
| 3 | Samburu National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 4 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 5 | Kidepo Valley National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 6 | Amboseli National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 7 | Nairobi National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 8 | Tsavo West National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 9 | Meru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 10 | Masai Mara National Reserve | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 11 | Ngorongoro Conservation Area | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 12 | Serengeti National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 13 | Murchison Falls National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 14 | Lake Nakuru National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 15 | Aberdare National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya | |
| 16 | Tarangire National Park | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 17 | Queen Elizabeth National Park | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 18 | Ranthambore National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 19 | Camargue | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 20 | Keoladeo National Park | 🇮🇳 India | |
| 21 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kuwait City | 🇰🇼 Kuwait | |
| 2 | Riyadh | 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia | |
| 3 | Doha | 🇶🇦 Qatar | |
| 4 | Manama | 🇧🇭 Bahrain | |
| 5 | Ulaanbaatar | 🇲🇳 Mongolia | |
| 6 | Beirut | 🇱🇧 Lebanon | |
| 7 | Tel Aviv | 🇮🇱 Israel | |
| 8 | Abu Dhabi | 🇦🇪 United Arab Emirates | |
| 9 | Taipei | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | |
| 10 | Addis Ababa | 🇪🇹 Ethiopia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report an Isabelline Wheatear sighting in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, based on 39 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 237th most-seen of the 424 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
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report an Isabelline Wheatear in Murchison Falls National Park on a given day, against under 5% in March–September and December, the lowest months. That is one of Murchison Falls National Park's driest months, with about 15 mm of rain against 190 mm in October.
Between 11 am and 2 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Isabelline Wheatear sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
13th of 21
Of the 21 parks where we can rate Isabelline Wheatear sightings, Murchison Falls National Park ranks 13th at under 5%. The best odds are in Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park (Mongolia, about 70%), Awash National Park (Ethiopia, about 60%) and Samburu National Reserve (Kenya, about 20%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Isabelline Wheatear is recorded against all the birds logged in Murchison Falls National Park (39 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.
