2 replies to this topic

[salva]

Hi everyone, last august I went to Tunisia and in the town of Kelibia I photographed this half a dozen wheatears. They look isabelline to me, but, apparently, the distribution of the species indicates they can not be isabelline. Can somebody help me?
Thank you
S.
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[psweet]

Welcome to Whatbird! Unfortunately, I know next to nothing about African birds, so I'll have to say wait for someone else.

[Ryn]

I'm with psweet on this one. African birds are a little outside my area of knowledge. Far be it from that to stop me though.

From what I could dig up, the birds in this picture do seem more Isabelline than Northern at first glance. The Northern would display very different coloration; assuming males during breeding season that is. As far as distribution goes, Tunisia is easily within the range for both the Northern and Isabelline. My final guess would be that these are Isabelline Wheatears. Note the small patch of white on the rump in picture #5 and the tail that appears virtually all black in picture #22 especially. Based on what I read, these seem to be good characteristics to ID the Isabelline in the field.

With all that said, I could be drastically wrong. lol